GUJARAT

The state cabinet on Wednesday sanctioned a sum of Rs 2,440 crore for developing a coastal highway which will ensure better connectivity to places of tourist interest along the coastline. spokesperson, JituVaghani, said that a new road will be constructed from the Statue of Unity (SoU) toShabri Dhamin South Gujarat at a cost of Rs 1,570 crore.

Providing information, the Education minister, said that the135-kilometre long coastal highway will connect Ubhrat,Tithaand Chorwad. He added that a new link will be set up from Khambhat to Ambli to ease traffic movement between Saurashtra and South Gujarat.

To attract investors and boost positive sentiments ahead of the upcomingVibrant Gujarat global summitscheduled in January 2022, theGujaratgovernment is set to announce around half a dozen new policies in key sectors like energy, IT/ITeS, electronics, and agri-business.
Chief minister Bhupendra Patel is likely to announce these policies soon. The government is also expected to approve important long-pending demands made by industries.

The states Information Technology & IT-enabled Services Policy 2016 will lapse shortly. So, the government is working on a new policy that will have a larger ambit. It is likely to cover emerging technologies like blockchain, and Robotics. Compared to the 2016 policy where incentives were given to create IT & ITeS accommodating properties, the new policy will focus on providing easy entry-and-exit plug-and-play Infrastructure on lease.

The policy is also expected to offer manpower-related incentives to attract talent and boost the sectors Growth. Similarly, the current policy for the electronic Industry is also coming to an end this month. To draft the new policy, the State Government is consulting large, medium, and small electronic companies to understand their needs and is also studying policies of other states. Like the IT/ITeS policy, the government intends to provide incentives to nurture manpower required for the industry.

With no decision taken by theGST Council, compensation for shortfall inGST collectionwill no longer be extended by the centre.

However, the state is still to get compensation for shortfall intax collectiondues for the month of June 2022, which amounts to Rs 2,311 crore, according to data by theUnion Finance Ministry, tabled in the parliament.

Gujarats shortfall is sixth highest among other Indian states whose compensation is also due. According to the ministry, Rs 35,266 crore of amount is yet to be cleared from the centre. The states GST collection stood at Rs 9,207 crore in June 2022 against Rs 6,128 crore in the corresponding month last year.

The tax collection grew on a low- according to government as well as Industry sources as economic and commercial activity had barely begun picking pace after the second wave of Covid-19 receded last year in May-June.

Riding on the current initial public offering () boom, Gujarat-based companies mop-up from the public issuesboth mainboard and small and medium enterprises (SME) IPOs–is set to cross Rs 10,000 crore-mark in 2021.

Gujarati companies have cumulatively raised around Rs 9,406 crore via 10 public issues, including SME IPOs, so far in 2021. Notable among them are Nirma Groups Nuvoco Vistas Corporation Limited, GR Infraprojects Limited, Anupam Rasayan Limited, Rolex Rings Limited and Heranba Industries Ltd.

Most of the public offerings under the pipeline are expected to hit the market before December, say financial sector players, adding thatGujarats IPO collection will easily surpass Rs 10,000 crore-mark even if one of these five planned issues hits the market before the end of 2021.

The total asset under management (AUM) of in Ahmedabad grew 41% annually to Rs1.12 lakh crore as of June 2021. MF asset base of Chennai, at the same time, rose 8.7% to settle at Rs 92,252 crore, shows data compiled by theAssociation of Mutual Fundsin India (AMFI), which had placed Chennai at sixth position in June last year.

Constant surge in stock market indices since June last year have further pushed up the net asset value of mutual fund schemes. Financial consultants say the inflows into systematic Investment plans (SIPs) have also continued over the past 12 months, fuelling AUM Growth.

Between January 1, 2020, and May 15, 2023, Gujaratis made a total of 1.59 lakh applications related to cybercrime on theNational Cyber Crime Reporting Portal(NCCRP) or helpline number 1930. It comes to 5,585 applications per month on an Average, 186 applications per day and average one application every 7.5 minutes!

Gujarat was among the nine states that recorded more than 1 lakh applications related to cybercrime during the said period, indicated data by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).

The data was reported recently in an NCRB response to an RTI application filed by Jeetendra Ghadge, a Girgaon-based activist. Ghadge had sought details on the Percentage of applications related to cybercrime converted into FIRs by Police. In all, the national ratio was found to be 1.9% as 43,022 FIRs were filed based on 22.57 lakh applications. In comparison, Gujarat’s applications-to-FIR ratio was found to be less than half at 0.8% – the state police recorded 1,233 FIRs out of the 1.59 lakh applications.

The semi-high speed rail project between Ahmedabad and Rajkot moved up a notch afterGujaratRail Development Corporation Limited (G-RIDE) called for consultants to prepare an Environment and Social Impact Assessment study for the project. G-RIDE is planning to reach out to various multilateral financing agencies like World Bank and Asian Development Bank to fund the project.

At present, G-RIDE is undertaking alignment studies of the project. It is estimated that a majority of the alignment will be along national highway (NH-47) connecting Ahmedabad and Rajkot. The take-off point in Ahmedabad is being planned at Sabarmati.

The EIA study will entail a comprehensive environment and social impact study along the route corridor. The consultants will identify mitigation measures, conduct public consultations, prepare a resettlement action plan as well as an environmental and social management plan. The project will act as a high-speed rail feeder for the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train and reduce travel time from Rajkot to Mumbai, which, currently takes more than 12 hours, to less than 5 hours.