TheGujarat governmenthas decided to provide financial assistance to 156 municipalities for cleaning works post heavy rainfall and flood situations in the state.
For this purpose, the government has given in-principle approval to allot Rs 17.10 crore to 156 municipalities of the state.
This grant will be used to provide facilities in all 156 municipalities of the state on an immediate basis at the primary stage.
As small businesses failed to recover post pandemic, their loan repayment capacities weakened, pushing bad loan burden underPradhan MantriMundra Yojana (PMMY) up.
While fresh disbursal of loans under Pradhan MantriMudra Yojana(PMMY) increased merely by 10% from Rs 1,920.29 crore in the April to June quarter of 2020-21 to Rs 2,089.22 crore in the corresponding quarter this year, NPAs swelled from Rs 555.54 crore to Rs 856.52 crore up 54.17%, during the same period.
According to experts, micro enterprises which typically avail Mudra Yojana were the worst affected due to the pandemic-inducedlockdown.
Significantly, compared to the corresponding period last year (2020), the revenue fromstamp dutyand property registration has spiked 148% in the period from April to July this year, reflecting a huge spurt in real estate transactions since April this year.
In the month of July, 2020 which was just after the lockdown, the income from stamp duty & registration fees was Rs 588 crore. In July this year, the income from stamp duty and registration touched the Rs 968 crore mark. Considering the April to July period, the revenue from stamp duty and registration in 2020 was Rs 1,234 crore. This year, the income from stamp duty and registration between April and July stands at Rs 3,061 crore.
Such impressive has been the stamp duty and registration revenue that the has earned 34% of its annual budgetary target of Rs 8,700 crore in the first four months of the financial year.
According to official figures of the state government, the number of property documents registered in the first four months of 2020-21 were 1.94 lakh, which increased to 4.07 lakh in the first four months of 2021-22, reflecting a whopping 110 % jump in total number of registered sale deeds in the state.
However, the states major Source Of Income – Goods & Service Tax (GST) income has grown by only 6% in the first four months of the ongoing fiscal year as compared to the same period last year. Revenue from stamp duty and registration grew by 148% in the first four months of the present fiscal year as compared to the same period last year. Motor vehicles tax has registered a Growth of 110% in the first four months of the financial year as compared to the corresponding period last year.
VAT (value added tax) on petroleum products showed a 81% jump in revenue in the first four months of the ongoing financial year as compared to the corresponding period last year. Government revenue from sale of liquor (Prohibition & excise tax) has registered a 61% hike in the April-July period this year as compared to the same period last year.
Although the overall income of the government from all sources showed a marginal drop in the year 2020-21 (Rs 79,793 crore) as compared to the previous financial year 2019-20 (Rs 86,534 crore), the government is upbeat that it will be able to cross the Rs 1,08,035 crore revenue target this year.
In an important decision aimed at redressing the water crisis inGujarat, chief minister Bhupendra Patel has approved several projects to provide water to 135 villages ofBanaskanthaandPatanfor drinking andirrigation.
The CM approved Rs 1,566.25 crore for laying 78-km long Kasara-Dantiwada life-Irrigation pipeline under theSujalam Sufalam Yojnaand 33-km long Rs 191.71 crore for theDindrol-Mukteshwar pipeline.
The lift-irrigation-based pipelines are ready, and the eastern parts of Banaskantha, which were bereft of Narmada water, will get reliable sources of water.
The Sujalam-Sufalam Yojna was launched in 2004 to ensure that Narmada waters reach maximum areas. Under this scheme, 12 out of the total 14 pipelines drawing water from Narmada Main Canal have already been completed to supply water to North Gujarat districts.
TheGujaratgovernment recently announced plans to invite global bids to develop a non-major port atNargolwith an initial of Rs 3,800 crore. Less than 50km away at Vadhavan in Maharashtra, the central government is working on a plan to develop a major port for an estimated investment of Rs 65,000 crore.
Nargol is likely to encounter tough competition from Vadhavan in drawing traffic. Moreover, the plans to develop new Ports and to boost port-led development activities could face challenges if theDraft Ports Bill2021 of the Union ministry of ports, shipping and waterways is implemented in its present form.
The draft bill aims to modify the current management model of non-major ports or ports that are run by state maritime regulators. The major ports are run by the central government.
The majority of the 27 functions defined for MSDC override the independence of state maritime boards.
Gujarat Maritime Board regulated ports handled 338 million metric tonnes (MMT) of cargo for the year 2020-21 as compared to the total national cargo of 1,247MMT. The state houses the countrys largest commercial port, the largest captive jetty, and is the only state to have three LNG terminals.
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.