By Vipin Agnihotri
Unbelievable but true, the economy of Gujarat is growing faster than some of the Asian economies. As a matter of fact, Gujarat is probably the only state of India witnessing a double-digit growth for a long time and also the only state growing higher than the country’s 8-9 percent economic growth.
It is worth mentioning in this regard that the Planning Commission has given Gujarat the highest growth target of 11.2 percent in the 11th Five Year Plan as compared to 10.2 percent achieved during the 10th Plan. In my opinion, labour harmony, infrastructure development, transparent policies and prudent State fiscal management have contributed to the growth of Gujarat.
The pivotal factor here is that man days lost due to labour unrest in Gujarat is only 0.65 percent as against 5 percent in Maharashtra. If experts are to be believed, the agriculture growth of Gujarat is over 10 percent, which is well above the national average. Not so long ago, Gujarat’s agricultural income was only Rs 9,000 crore. At this moment of time, it has gone up to Rs 34,000 crore. This income directly goes to farmers.
Gujarat is also the first state in the country to start ‘river grid’ process. It has come into the notice of The India Street that Gujarat has already linked close to two dozen rivers. Point to be noted here is that Gujarat is a state that faces famine in seven out of ten years. Bur with new initiatives like river linking, water harvesting and a green evolution project, there is no doubt that Gujarat is making strides in the agricultural space.
Gujarat government is trying to emulate Amsterdam and Singapore in port development. There are signs that roads of Gujarat will be as good as Autobahns of Germany in the near future. On the other hand, chemical and petrochemical industry of Gujarat will be comparable to that of Japan. Gujarat has the maximum number of airports. As a matter of fact, in the Kutch district alone Gujarat have as many five airports. Moreover, Bharuch is emerging as an oil and gas, chemical and petrochemical hub in India.
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