GUJARAT

Gujarat, the state that led the way in solar power adoption in India, has secured the third position in terms of cumulative large-scalesolar installationsin the country.

Notably, Gujarat experienced an impressive 85% increase in such installations during the first quarter of 2023, while solar installations across India declined by 30% during the same period, according to the India Solar Market Update 2023 report by Mercom India.

Between January and March 2023, Gujarat witnessed 261 megawatts (MW) of solar installations, compared to 141MW in the previous quarter. Since Q1 2022, Gujarat has consistently ranked as the third-highest state for large-scale solar capacity addition, with an impressive quarter-over-quarter increase of nearly 85% in Q1 2023.

Gujarat has one of the finest policies to enable quick rooftop installation. Having pioneered solar adoption, the government here has rolled out a policy that not just incentivises people for large-scale as well as rooftop installations but also ensures expedited execution. Moreover, several solar park projects and large-scale installations are already in pipeline by the government.

On the other hand, pan-India solar installations declined due to commissioning deadlines for several large-scale projects being postponed to the following year. Out of the total 1.9GW of solar installations in India during the January to March 2023 quarter, Gujarat accounted for 19% of new installations, trailing behind Karnataka (21%) andRajasthan(42%).
Gujarat’s position improved to third place in the January to March 2023 period, surpassingAndhra Pradeshin Q1 2022. Priyadarshini Sanjay said, Rajasthan’s solar irradiation and the largest solar park in Bhadla have made it the most preferred state, while Karnataka benefits from the Pavagada Solar Park, which contributes to its large-scale installations.

Even though market volatility remained high over the last quarter, the retail investors fromGujarathave kept their faith intact in mutual fund investments.

Three cities of Gujarat – Ahmedabad (6), Vadodara (9) and Surat (11), not only figure among top 12 across India with highest assets under management in but also account for a lion’s share of 67% of the state’s AUM, as on March 31, 2023. Gujarat’s AUM stood at Rs 2.76 lakh crore in the March quarter of which Rs 1.83 lakh crore came from these three cities.
Investors from Ahmedabad are clear ahead as compared to the other two cities – with Rs 1.22 lakh crore of AUM coming from here alone. Vadodara and Surat account for Rs 33,901 crore and Rs 26,806 crore, respectively.

The recently published ‘Women and Men in India 2022′ report by National Statistical Office (NSO) of Government of India indicated that for the April to June 2022 period, the pay disparity between male and female casual labourers was 25% in urban areas and 26% in rural areas ofGujarat.

According to the report, based on (PLFS) of NSO, male workers were paid Rs 390 and female workers Rs 312 in urban areas, whereas the figures were Rs 304 and Rs 242 respectively for rural areas.

The report stated that the pay for women in both rural and urban areas of the state was less than the national Average of Rs 265 and Rs 333 respectively.

The report highlighted that in Gujarat, 71% of the demonstrators or tutors were women, but when it came to associate professor or reader levels, the figure dropped to 33%; for the level of professor, it dropped to 28%. Pathak said that women get relatively few opportunities when it comes to the highest positions in academia.

The impact of Covid on Education was also chronicled – the number of females receiving education dropped from 40.7% in 2019-20 to 39.3% in 2021-22. On the other hand, male students increased from 60.9% to 62.6% in the same period.

Dagri cow which is found in the tribal heartland of CentralGujarathas gotnational recognitionpaving way for conservation and preservation of its genes.

After Gir, Kankrej and Dangi, Dagri is the fourthindigenous breedof cow from Gujarat to get national recognition from the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources (NBAGR), the nodal agency of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) that registers the new breeds.

With funding from animal husbandry department of Gujarat government, AAU and Kutch-based NGO Sahjeevan is conducting surveys of unrecognised breeds by studying their phenotypic and genetic characterization after which such proposals are submitted to the central government through the for recognition of such indigenous breeds.

Taking a cue from ChatGPT that has taken the world by storm, demonstrating what a good Database coupled with natural language processing (NLP) can do, many other projects are employing similar tech in the field of translation.

The researchers at Gandhinagar-based Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT) have successfully created models for translating works in Hindi and Chinese into Gujarati and vice versa. They are now looking at adding Hebrew to the mix.

As part of the National Translation Mission (NTM) of the ministry of electronics and information technology, the DAIICT had received Rs 2 crore to develop algorithms for Gujarati language.

The project will have implications in the fields of e-Governance, Health and law.

Urging farmers to adopt on a larger scale, governor Acharya Devvrat on Tuesday said that this will change the countrys destiny. Speaking to farmers at Anand Agricultural University, the governor said not only will this reduce the dependence on chemicals Fertilizers, it will give farmers higher returns for their crops.

The governor, who has been leading a sustained campaign to promote organic farming, said possession of one cow can help farmers take up natural farming on 30 acres of land and farmers who have 30 cows can take up organic farming on one acre.

The Centre has shown its preparedness to get the ball roling on two key river linking projects which will bring water to Mumbai and parts of northMaharashtra but the two beneficiary states must arrive at a consensus.

Two river linking projects between Maharashtra andGujaratare among these five. The Damanganga-Pinjal project and the Par-Tapi-Narmada project have been on the drawing board for a while, but have seen little progress. The Damanganga project looks to meet Mumbai citys drinking water needs till 2060 and the Par-Tapi-Narmada project has potential for north Maharashtra.

The Damanganga-Pinjal project looks to harness water that runs off Maharashtra into the Arabian Sea, and divert the same to Mumbai city for drinking purposes. All this water is from Maharashtra. Gujarat has no role, yet the draft agreement says water from here will be given to Gujarat, said Jadhav.

The Par-Tapi-Narmada project entirely benefits Gujarat, and Maharashtra has demanded compensation of 15 TMC (thousand meter cube) run-off water from Maharashtra into theTapibasin in Dhule.