GUJARAT

TheGujaratgovernment will have to spend over Rs 2,000 crore to immunize people between the age of 18 and 45 years.

While the government of India has been funding the vaccination drive of citizens above the age of 45, the will have to pay vaccine manufacturers for doses to inoculate persons between the ages of 18 and 45.

According to government sources, there are about 3.25 crore citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 in Gujarat. With each citizens requiring to be administered two vaccine doses, there is requirement of 6.50 crore doses of the vaccine for this age group.

The state government has placed orders of 2.50 crore doses with two Indian vaccine manufacturers. While an order of two crore doses has been placed with Pune-basedSerum Institute of India, an order of 50 lakh doses of the vaccine manufactured byBharat Biotech, Hyderabad, has also been placed.

Gujaraton Tuesday achieved a major milestone of more than 10,000 5G base transceiver station (BTS) across various districts.

BTS is a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless Communication between user equipment (UE) and a Network. UEs are devices like mobile phones (handsets) or WLL phones.

Gunjan Dave, head of DoT Gujarat, told TOI that as on date there are 10,189 5G BTS on air in the state.

Gujarat was the first state in India to have 5G Services in all the 33 districts. The UT of Dadra &Nagar Haveliand Daman & Diu has also achieved a milestone of more than 100 5G BTS with a total 106 on air 5G BTS covering all the 3 districts.

The self-financed and government schools in the state are yet to receive grants under the girl child Education scheme for about two years now. The AkhilGujaratRajyaShala Sanchalak Mahamandalhas in a written representation to state education ministerJitu Vaghanihas asked the government to immediately release the pending funds as the schools are facing financial Stress. One of the flagship projects in Gujarat,Kanya Kelavni Nidhi, is a scheme to improve girl child education in the state.

Signalling greater financial requirements to meet WORKING CAPITAL needs of Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs),Gujarathas had the third highest borrowing under theemergency creditline guarantee scheme(ECLGS).

According to the latest report of the state-level bankers committee (SLBC), Gujarat, Rs 20,862 crore was borrowed under ECLGS the third highest amount in India after Maharashtra and Nadu. Guarantees worth this amount have been issued by the National Credit Guarantee Trust Company Limited (NCGTCL).

Bankers and Industry stakeholders say that Gujarat is not just a manufacturing-heavy state but also is Home to various MSMEs, which faced increased cash needs soon after the pandemic began. When industry was faced with higher freight and raw material costs, their working capital needs shot up further. Gujarat had some 12.18 lakh MSMEs as of July 2021, according to data from the MSME ministry tabled in Parliament.

Gujarat is a manufacturing-heavy state with a high number of MSMEs. The emergency credit extended by way of government guarantees provided to businesses came as a huge booster to industries that were struggling for working capital due to pandemic-induced disruptions.

For the first time, a thorough guideline to strike off provisions for chemical Plants in development plans and town planning schemes of eight municipal corporations and 156 nagarpalikas will be released by the state urban development department, a few weeks after Diwali.

The state’s urban development department has already requested from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) a list of chemical unit types, to be included in the new upcoming guidelines. These units should be producing hazardous chemicals, disposing of toxic waste, or having chimneys that vent dangerous industrial gases. Back in July last year, the Vijay Rupani government had initiated discussions in this direction.

Aiming to give an impetus to tourism and economic activities in the state,Gujaratgovernment has proposed a new 1,630-kilometre coastal corridor from Umeragm in the south to Narayan Sarovar in Kutch. To be completed under PM GatiShakti scheme, the government proposes to set aside a buffer area along the highway for industrial and allied activities. The government has already earmarked the first 300 km covering Valsad, Navsari, Surat and Bharuch districts.

With the objective of giving an impetus to tourism and economic activities in the state, the Gujarat government has proposed a new 1,630km long coastal corridor from Umargam in south Gujarat to Narayan Sarovar in Kutch. To be completed under thePM Gati Shakti scheme, the government proposes to set aside a stipulated area along the highway for various industrial and allied activities.
The has already earmarked the first 300 kilometres of the project covering the districts of Valsad, Navsari, Surat and Bharuch in south Gujarat.

Under the PM Gati Shakti project, a detailed plan has been prepared for first 300km stretch. Sources said that the entire corridor is being planned keeping in mind the CRZ (Coastal Regulation Zone) restrictions, forest regulations and the like.

Union micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) minister Narayan Rane said on Monday that the EMPLOYMENT opportunities in theMSME sectoris set to increase inGujarat. He said that theMSMEministry is making efforts to double the employment opportunities in the sector within the next few years.

In Gujarat, the ministry of MSME has sanctioned two SFURTI clusters with a project outlay of Rs 4.72 crores Samavedana Coir Cluster and Tarapur Coir Cluster.

The 206 Dams in the state have only 51% water, including the Sardar Sarovar dam which is filled only to 49.2% of its capacity. TheSSNLhas 4,339.52 million cubic metre (MCM) of water which was 4,310MCM on August 26.

Of the 206 dams in the state, only seven dams have water stored to 90% of capacity or more, eight have between 80% and 90%. Only 11% of dams have more than 70% storage. Officials said that one of every four dams in the state have reached less than 10% of their storage.
The data shows that 63 dams have storage between 30% and 10%, and 185 dams in the state have less than 70% water.