GUJARAT

Every day, over the past 91 days, 230 Amdavadis were conned by cybercriminals over phone calls, SMSs and fake WFH job links shared over a telegram channel. This translates to nearly 10 victims every hour.
TheCybercell of Gujarat CID(crime) has observed the emergence of new social engineering tactics during this period. As a result, the Police have issued warnings through their Social Media platforms and helpline, urging citizens to remain vigilant against fraudulent SMS messages claiming to redeem credit card reward points, deceptive apps promising income through fake work-from-Home schemes, and phishing websites that attempt to acquire sensitive card details.

The cumulative exports from Gujarats functional special economic zones (SEZs) surged 20% to Rs 18,441 crore in May this year from Rs 15,418 crore in the preceding month of April, according to government data.

Increase in exports ofpetroleum,pharmaceutical and chemical productspushed up the overall exports from the 20 SEZs operational within the state.

The exports from Reliance SEZ increased by 36% from Rs 10,203 crore in April to 13,869 crore in May. During the same period, Zydus SEZ, which is a pharmaceutical SEZ, saw its exports grow from Rs 396 crore to Rs 443 crore, while Dahej SEZs exports moved up from Rs 585 crore to Rs 757 crore.

However, exports from GIFT and TCS SEZs located inGandhinagaras well as Surat SEZ in Surat and Sterling SEZ in Bharuch witnessed a declined in May on month-on-month basis, the government data further showed.

On year-on-year basis, the cumulative exports jumped 143% due to low- as the exports remained muted at Rs 7,594 crore in May last year due to lockdown-induced disruptions.

Fertilizer and chemicals major,Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd(GNFC) posted a 48% decline in fourth quarter profits, the company said in its stock exchange filing on Thursday. The consolidated net profit fell to Rs 336 crore during the quarter as compared to Rs 643 crore in the year-ago period. GNFCs profits declined as a consequence of weaker demand in theagriculture sector.

The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 30 per share of Rs 10 each fully paid up (300%) for FY23. The companys share price fell 8.05% to Rs 601.95 a piece at close onBSE.

Sarus, it seems, has chosen to makeGujaratan ideal abode for itself. For, a census conducted on the worlds tallest flying bird in the state has revealed that itspopulationmay have gone up by about 20 per cent in a decade. Experts welcome the heartening news as the increase in Population is despite dwindlingwetlandsand rapid Urbanisation in the state.

Sarus cranes usually stay in and around wetlands that are either getting encroached or fast disappearing. Despite their natural abodes reducing over the last few years, Sarus cranes have increased in numbers and it is an encouraging revelation for bird lovers.

Gujarat government’s flagship summit, the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit (VGGS), is all set to be organised from January 11-13, 2024, according to top sources in the State Government. The last edition of VGGS took place in 2019, during which some 28,360 MoUs were signed, which include MoUs worth at least Rs 1 lakh crore inked in the RENEWABLE ENERGY sector.

Post-Covid, VGGS was scheduled to be held in January 2022. However, the state officials had deferred the event in the last minute. Notably, at that time, tensions betweenUkraineand Russia were escalating while Covid-19 cases triggered by the Omicron variant were also rising.

All major economies including the US, UK, Japan, Germany, Netherlands in addition to Gulf countries and African countries will be approached to participate in the 10th edition of the mega investment summit.

The told the house on Saturday that the estimate of Saurashtra-Narmada Avataran Irrigation Yojana (Sauni), which was given an in-principle sanction of Rs 10,000 crore, has been increased to Rs 18,563 crore.

Modhwadia sought an inquiry into the matter as the state finance department had issued a note stating that the SOR for the project was not as per the rules. He stated that the tenders invited for the project were at 45% higher rate.
Stating that there was no need for an inquiry, Patel said that during a survey it was found that more pipes were required and hence the project cost was increased. The government said that the rates were fixed as per the SOR (system of record) of 2011-12.

The government also stated that the right of way and the cost of electricity connection were not taken into account in the primary approval. These were included in the secondary approval given in 2018.

It’s not financial frauds alone but there has been a rise in the number of cases involving cyberbullying, threats and posting obscene sexual materials against Women, which are being noticed by the state Police over the last five years. In 2022, there were 5,228 cases involving Social Media accounts and in most cases more than 75% to 80% cases involved women.

According to theNational Crime Research Bureau(NCRB), inGujaratthe most significant period for reporting such cases was between 2017 and 2020 where cases rose from 94 to 277 in 2020 – mainly involving cyber blackmailing, threatening, cyberbullying and posting of obscene contents pertaining to the victims. In all, 781 cases involving women victims were reported by the state police till 2020.

In 2021 and 2022, quite significantly cyber trafficking cases were reported where perpetrators fake a romantic relationship with the victims on social media to exploit them. The cases reported by the CID crime were 32 and 46 cases respectively for the two years.

Post-pandemic, which is between two years, 2021 and 2022, cybercrime complaints have risen 368% – from 17,237 cases in 2021 to 80,681 in 2022. This stupendous rise in overall cybercrime cases is because of a 530% rise in just online financial fraud cases – from 11,131 cases in 2021 to 70,183 in 2022.

TheGujaratUniversity Startup And Council launched the Vikram Sarabhai Childrens Innovation Centre (VSCIC), under the aegis of Gujarat University with the support ofUnicefand Yuwaah.

The Centre will identify, nurture and support innovations by children from Gujarat. VSCIC is envisioned to take GUSEC, UNICEF and Yuwaahs efforts in childrens innovation a step further and is being established after the success of two editions of the Childrens Innovation Festival which brought more than 3,100 children to the field of innovation.

Key activities planned under VSCIC are developing an online platform for promotion of innovation among children and stakeholders such as schoolteachers and parents.

The centre also proposes to engage and support ideas of children. The centre will create and amplify inspiring stories of children innovators, apart from other activities.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) signed an MoU on Thursday with theGujaratgovernment for a total of Rs 5.95 lakh crore as part of investment promotion activity for Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2022.

These projects will create 10 lakh direct and indirect EMPLOYMENT opportunities in the state, the company said in a media statement.

The countrys largest private sector company will develop an eco-system for assisting Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and encourage entrepreneurs to embrace new technologies and innovations leading to captive use of RENEWABLE ENERGY and green hydrogen.
In consultation with government of Gujarat, RIL has started the process of scouting land for 100GW renewable energy power project in Kutch, Banaskantha and Dholera. The company has requested for 4.5 lakh acres of land in Kutch.

RIL will invest another Rs 60,000 crore in setting up new energy manufacturing-integrated renewable facilities including solar PV module (for manufacture of polysilicon, wafer, cell & module), electrolyzer, energy-storage battery and Fuel Cells.

The site of these Plants will be located at the new 5,000 acres Green Energy Giga Complex in Jamnagar. The company is planning to enter the solar manufacturing and generation with a target of 100GW of Solar Energy by 2030.