Wooing investors in Karnataka Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi showcased the state as an ideal investment destination, offering enormous opportunities in various sectors, including textiles and cement, while addressing business houses, institutions and organisations today.
“The possibilities for developing strategic alliances between business communities of both states in mutual interest areas are tremendous,” he said and seeking participation in Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit, a biennial event scheduled for January 12-13. Modi said Karnataka dominates in automobile and auto component, engineering, electronics, steel and IT sectors,while Gujarat is ahead in pharmaceuticals, textiles, cement, paper, diamond cutting and processing. “The business community of both states can synergise their strengths and complement each others’ expertise,” he said.
Highlighting some of Gujarat’s “achievements”, he said it had the largest OFC network of more than 50,000 km. The state owned Wide Area Network is the largest IP-based ICT network in Asia Pacific Region and second largest in the world,connecting 26 districts and 225 taluks through 12,000 nodes, he claimed.
There are more than 900,000 internet users and all villages are now connected with broadband internet, he said. The Chief Minister said Gujarat had taken steps in IT use, namely in e-governance, e-procurement, tax information system, hospital management, system and even in enhancing information on official portals, which had won it numerous awards.
“Gujarat contributes to 16 per cent of India’s industrial output, 22 per cent of exports, 35 per cent of pharmaceutical products, 51 per cent of chemical production and 62 per cent of petrochemical production,” he said. The state registered 12.8 per cent agriculture growth in the last five years against the national average of two per cent.
This was possible due to focus on rainwater harvesting and turning it into a mass movement, as opposed to only power supply earlier. The move had resulted in rise in water tables. Steps like providing better seeds, issuing soil health cards to determine soil quality and closer interaction between agricultural universities, animal husbandry departments and farmers had helped increase yield, he said.