Delayed Rains Likely To Affect Crops In Guj - July 22 , 2008

Delay in rain after early onset of monsoon in western parts of the country is now frightening cotton, maize and paddy crops in Gujarat. Sowing in around 20 lakh hectares off the total 45 hectares of land brought under cultivation so far may be adversely impacted in the absence of enough rainfall in the state. Even the government officials do not rule out the possibility of cotton, maize and paddy crops taking a major impact if the state does not get satisfactory rainfall in the next one week.

will be suggested about selecting for alternative crops if the state fails to get enough rainfall in coming day. Meanwhile, farmers have asked power supply for 12 hours so that they can save the standing crops. A contigency plan has been chalked out in the wake of erratic rainfall in many parts of the state. Sowing in many areas comprising Banaskantha, Bhavnagar, Surendranagar and Ahmedabad disricts have taken an impact due to delay in monsoon.

Gujarat Sezs Looks For Rs 74,000cr Exports In 2009-10

The special economic zones (SEZs) based in Gujarat have anticipated exports to the tune of Rs 74,190.24 crore for the fiscal 2009-10. The expected exports from all SEZs in the country for 2007-08 are to the tune of Rs 67,088 crore. Of the 50-odd SEZs approved, so far, in Gujarat by the Centre, notifications have been issued for 20. Of these, six are multi-products, two for pharmaceuticals, apparel and IT-ITeS, and engineering products each, and one each concentrating on gems and jewellery, high-tech engineering products, power, textile garments, electronics products and chemicals. The multi-product SEZ, being established by Reliance Infrastructure Ltd at Jamnagar in a 1,765-hectare area, is projected to export products worth Rs 45,029 crore, while the Kandla SEZ, also a multi-product zone, would export products worth Rs 4,407 crore. In Gujarat, most of the SEZs are coming in the core manufacturing sector, while in other States these are mainly in the IT and ITeS-related services. By December 2009, investments to the tune of Rs 2,59,159 crore are hoped in these SEZs where 22 lakh new jobs are likely to be created.

Gujarat To Adopt Focused Area Approach To Spur Growth

Gujarat, with more than 50 special economic zones (SEZs) in its kitty, is now working out a special focused area approach to spur growth in sectors ranging from salt and salt-based industries to infrastructure development. According to official sources, special emphasis is being laid for boosting infrastructure development. The government has planned special incentive schemes aimed at attracting global investments into this sector. They will be known as premier or prestigious schemes. In the past years, the state has introduced such schemes but the main focus of them was industrial projects. The pioneer industries scheme, one of such leading schemes, has attracted investment of Rs 1 billion or more. Now a similar experiment is being planned for the infrastructure sector.

One of the major infrastructure development projects is the creation of state-of-the-art industrial and logistics parks. So far, the Gujarat Industrial Development Corp (GIDC) was responsible for creating the requisite infrastructure facilities in the state. Now the state government could opt for private-public partnership for implementing infrastructure projects that would also provide logistics services to meet the needs of SEZs, ports and special investment region.