Gujarat – The wealth creator of India

Gujarat as we all know is one of the most industrialized state in India. Gujarat offers a model for Economic Progress and Development for the entire country to follow. Gujarat has emerged as an Industrial hub with largest of Indian corporate groups having its presence in the state. But many wonder, why and how has Gujarat achieved this? Why no other state in India has managed to do what Gujarat has done in last 10 years ?

There are quite a few reasons for that. To begin with the first and foremost is the ‘Investor Friendly’ policies of the state government of Gujarat. The government of Gujarat led by Narendra Modi, in past 10 years or so have ensured that ‘work gets done’. The Industrial policy of the state government has made sure that every investor looking to invest in Gujarat gets all kinds of freedom, facility, infrastructure, lack of red-tapism and transparency in governance.

Here are some facts about Gujarat and its Industrialization, which are never highlighted by our so called mainstream media.

• Gujarat pays approximately 27%  of the total tax paid in India.
• Gujarat is India’s ‘Petro Capital’ State with 30% of Petrochemicals, 50% Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals business.
• It is the largest producer (35%) and exporter (60%) of cotton and is the third largest denim producer in the world
• Gujarat has the distinction of second largest producer of Gold Jewellery with 85% contributing share to national jewellery production. Gujarat contributes 80% to Diamond Exports.
• In spite of not being rich in minerals and coal, power and steel companies have established huge base in the state. Gujarat, from being a power deficit state in 2000, is one of the power-surplus state in India which produces close to 10000 MW of power , which it plans to double to 20000 MW by 2012. Tata, Reliance, Adani, Essar you name it and they have huge power generation plants coming up in Gujarat. Gujarat leads also in alternative source of power generation such as Solar power and Wind energy.
• Port of  Gujarat handles more than 25% of nation’s cargo traffic, private ports are being developed and even government ports are earning profits unlike ports in other parts of India.
• Exports from various SEZ’s in Gujarat is about 50% of the total exports by all SEZ’s in India.
• Gujarat produces maximum crude oil and natural gas in India and has about 1/3rd of our country’s refining capacity. Reliance houses World’s biggest refinery in the state. It is the only state with 2 operational LNG terminals.
• Government of Gujarat is not only developing existing towns and cities but developing new industrial towns and cities along the Ahmedabad-Mumbai corridor to cater to the need of its growing population and industrialization.

These are just some of the key points highlighting how the state of Gujarat due to its government’s policies in last some years have progressed and has become India’s top ranked state. The central government led by UPA and Congress have not been favorable with the state of Gujarat for reasons known by all. In spite of that the government of Gujarat has done lot more than it was envisioned. It has contributed maximum to the economic rising of India as a nation.

Larger question is, if all this is possible in one state within short span of 10 years, why cant it be done in whole of India? We just need will to succeed and clear and strong leadership to achieve it.

Amit Shah Case- Media Bias and Tapes

Amit Shah, the Minister of State for Home In Gujarat Government has been in Judicial Custody after CBI issued summons and filed a charge sheet against him last week in the Sohrabbudin fake encounter case. The entire episode was hyped up and portrayed by most of our media. The media ran its own trial and tried the accused and even hanged him even before he was interrogated by the CBI. On Sunday 25th July 2010, Amit Shah himself presented to the CBI and was taken to a magistrate. CBI did not even ask for the custody of Amit Shah, who by now had resigned as the minister from the Gujarat Cabinet. Amit Shah was taken in judicial custody.

Since today morning reputed news channel CNN-IBN announced that it would be ‘exclusively’ showing the video tapes which provides evidence against Amit Shah, the ex-home minister of state for Gujarat, which would throw light on the Sohrabbudin fake encounter case. No one tried to find out what these tapes were and how did a news channel got access to it when the case was still on and CBI was yet to interrogate Amit Shah.

The event was hyped and was supposed to be ‘make or break’ in the case against the ex-minister as pointed out and advertised by the  channel. It even leaked a part of the transcript on its website ibnlive.com suggesting something but revealing nothing. People were hooked and glued to the Television at 8 pm and then the videos were shown.

The videos were some sort of ‘sting’ operation captured by the 2 builders who themselves have plenty of cases pending against them. The not so clear videos show the builders talking against themselves and the policemen, who are also behind bars in the same case, something about money changing hands, them complaining to Amit Shah,who didnt listen to them and so on. The video was shabby to say the least. It was on par with what any 8 year old would have shot in a birthday party. Considering that it was supposedly a ‘sting’ operation we can give benefit of doubt to the quality of video and audio recorded, however it was a clear case of 4 people discussing sitting and speaking about a 5th person who is not even present in the video. None of the audio ever revealed anything related to the case. We do not even know when and where the video was shot, was it shot last week? or 2 years back? No proof of that.

Coming to the crucial point, How can these “sting” tapes be considered “proof” against Amit Shah? 4 people are talking about a 5th in his absence – this can easily be ‘created’. The persons discussing themselves are from dubious background. Is this the evidence CBI has? If so is the case, then Amit Shah has nothing to worry.

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Larger question is how can media allow itself to be used this way & expect its credibility to go unquestioned? Media bias is so obvious and any sensible person will take any news with pinch of salt. But today, namak zyada ho gaya.Bahut zyada.

Dear Media, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah may be whatever they are, but please don’t peddle conversation between 4 people as proof of something. It’s just another home video from Youtube.