| Kalam visited city Drawing a picture of India by 2020, the President said that India will be a nation where the best of health care is available to all the billion population; a nation where the governance uses the best of the technologies to be responsive, transparent, easily accessible and simple in rules; a nation where poverty has been totally alleviated; illiteracy and crime against women are eradicated and the society is unalienated; a nation that is prosperous, healthy, secure, peaceful and happy; a nation that is one of the best places to live in. |
| SurSEZ records exports The Surat Special Economic Zone (SurSEZ) has achieved Rs 1107.33 crore worth exports in the current financial year ended December 2004. |
| It is aiming exports of Rs 1,500 crore by the end of the financial year. |
| SurSEZ, the first private sector SEZ in the country, which has been developed by the Diamond & Gem Development Corporation Ltd, had completed its fourth anniversary in November. |
| Exports from the zone have constantly increased since it became operational. |
| Total exports from the zone in fiscal 2000-01 were worth Rs 62 crore, which increased to Rs 312 crore in 2001-02. |
| February |
| City second in diamond Ahmedabad has accounted for the second highest sale of diamonds in the country with a growth rate of 30 per cent behind Kolkata with a 31 per cent sales growth, said Samit Bhatta, national sales and marketing manager, Diamond Trading Company (DTC). |
| March |
| Realty prices soaring Real estate prices in Ahmedabad are set to more than double in the next five years. Two major factors - the announcement of Ahmedabad getting a mega city status and liberalisation of foreign direct investment (FDI) in construction, are expected to trigger this price rise, say developers and civic officials of the city. |
| At present, the price of flat or office space in Ahmedabad is around Rs 1,000 per square feet, which may exceed Rs 2,000 per square feet in the next five years. |
| Godrej to invest in state The Godrej group plans to invest over Rs 700 crore in Gujarat in the next few years. It will invest Rs 250 crore through its subsidiary Godrej Agrovet for cultivation and processing of palm oil in south Gujarat. |
| The group also plans to invest substantially in chemicals, animal feed businesses and in various expansion programmes. Substantial investment will also be made in the Aadhar project, which is a rural retail chain of stores. |
| April |
| State allots wastelands The Gujarat government has decided to allot state-held wastelands to corporates and farmers for contract farming. |
| A government resolution (GR) on this will be issued soon and thereafter around 39 lakh hectares would be available for contract farming. Around 20 per cent of the state's total area of 196 lakh hectares is wasteland. |
| Gujarat tops in moblie One of the biggest advantages that cellular subscribers enjoy in states where there is just one circle where no roaming rates are applicable within the state. |
| Gujarat has close to 39 lakh cellular subscribers with over 30 lakh GSM subscribers and over eight lakh CDMA cellular subscribers. |
| Cellular operators see this as a distinct advantage for subscribers, who tend to be far better connected when the whole state is apart of a circle. |
| Operators feel that there ought to be just one circle within a state. But subscribers in a state such as Gujarat definitely have an advantage. |
| May |
| State 5th in milk prod. Gujarat has been ranked as the fifth largest milk producer in India with a procurement of 6,421 thousand tonne of milk in 2003-04. |
| The nationwide procurement during the period was at 88,082 thousand tonne. |
| Milk production in the state has been increasing at the rate of nearly five per cent per annum. Experts in the sector are confident that the trend will continue in the future. |
| Kutch mangoes exported Kutchis going global, if mango exports are any indication. The kesar mangoes of Kutch district are all set to make a foray into the Middle East, Canada and Kenya markets. |
| Around 250 tonne of kesar mangoes were exported. |
| June |
| Sewa foray into retailing It is not only multi-diversified industrial giants that are foraying into the retail business. The retail bug seems to have bitten non-government organisations (NGOs) as well. |
| Ahmedabad-based Self Employed Women's Association (Sewa) plans to foray into the retail segment in September. The top management of SEWA has started taking lessons at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA) to develop retailing skills. |
| Apart from entering into Ahmedabad urban market, Sewa will step into the international market with its products at Mexico. |
| Sewa plans to launch internationally all the textile-based products that have already been launched in India, which includes products from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. |
| July |
| State washed out July experiences heavy rains making farmers happy "� but not allowing commuting of humanbeings across the state and so at times business experiences pause despite sensex zooming high, international trades affected due to Rina and Katrina in US. |
| SEBI issues instructions to stock exchanges across the country to debar the appointment of sub-brokers under brokers registered with a particular stock-exchange w.e.f. July 1 resulting into chaos at Stock Exchanges of state. |
| Adani launched PNG Gujarat Adani Energy (GAEL) launched its piped natural gas (PNG) service. On the auspicious day of Guru Purnima on Thursday, the company kicked off supplies to Swaminarayan Temple at Maninagar. Gas supplies were also started to two houses in the Vallbhwadi area. |
| August |
| Reliance goes to IIM-A Reliance Industries Ltd, India's largest private sector company, will visit the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, the country' top business school, for the first time this year to meet its growing requirement of trained manpower. |
| "RIL is coming to participate in the campus recruitment programme for summer placements this November," IIM-A Director Bakul Dholakia told Business Standard. |
| Despite being one of the largest conglomerates in the country, for some unknown reason, RIL had stayed away from IIM-A, though the company is known for picking up the best brains from engineering institutes across the nation. |
| According to a source close to RIL, the company's plans to expand its Jamnagar refinery capacity by 30 million tonnes and also its polymer and hydrocarbon sector capacity will require a large pool of managerial talent. |
| The Essar Group is also recruiting for its Jamnagar refinery project, which is slated to go on-stream by the third quarter of 2006. |
| September |
| MICA launched FM The Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) launched a community radio station under the title of 'MICA Vaani' on 90.4 Mhz in November. |
| The target audience will be facilitated to develop programmes with the help of students and faculty members of MICA," said Ravi Dixit, head, broadcasting management programme and faculty member, MICA." |
| The is acting as a link with the happening in the world that have an impact on their day to day lives", he claimed. |
| October |
| Edible oil fortified First meeting to solve the glitch over Packaging Act and Fortifying Edible Oil with Vitamins takes place between District Administration and Saurashtra Oil Millers Association (SOMA); wherein SOMA members agree to conduct a pilot batch. |
| Pilot Batch for fortifying edible oil with Vitamins carried out at 9 edible oil mills across Rajkot District in presence of SOMA representatives and District Collector Mona Khandhar. |
| November |
| RIL invites global cos The Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is pitching for petrochemicals downstream projects with a projected investment of Rs 30,000 crore at its special economic zone (SEZ) in Jamnagar. |
| The RIL has invited Dow Chemicals, Royal Dutch/Shell, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Nippon, ExxonMobil, Huntman and Borealis for the projects. |
| The RIL has made detailed presentations before these companies during the last few days. |
| December |
| Essar to set up steel SEZ Essar Steel has proposed to set up a Special Economic Zone at Hazira in South Gujarat dedicated to the steel industry at a cost of Rs 13,000 crore. |
| Sources in the Gujarat government told Business Standard that the proposed steel SEZ will be spread over 1,100 hectares of land adjacent to the existing project site of Essar. |
| The Essar group has approached the union ministry of commerce for an in-principal approval of the project. Essar has also sought support from the Gujarat government for the proposed SEZ. For the infrastructure of the proposed steel SEZ, Essar has estimated an additional investment of Rs 400 crore. |
| NDDB launched Sugam After great speculation, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has hit Gujarat with its subsidiary Mother Dairy India Limited selling liquid milk under a new brand, 'Sugam'. |
| NDDB chairperson Amrita Patel launched liquid milk in Gujarat market and other dairy products are expected to hit the shelf soon. |
| Residents of several areas in the city of Ahmedabad woke up to find Sugam brand of liquid milk at their doorsteps instead of Amul. |
| Interestingly, NDDB has launched the brand, which is being manufactured and sold by Baroda Dairy. |
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