Tenth Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas – 2012
CM Narendra Modi advocates development on
3 S – Scale, Speed and Skill to realize India’s century
CM Modi receives standing ovation by NRIs at the Pravasi Sammelan
Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi today said that new India should stand on the three pillars - Scale, Speed and Skill – a model propagated by the state of Gujarat, to realize its full potential. The days for slow working has gone and we have to think of a bigger scale, develop skills and execute with speed. Then only it will be possible to match other countries and reach to the pinnacle of glory making India truly a global power.Mr. Narendra Modi s aid that Gujarat is the India’s rather global capital of solar energy. Gujarat and Raj asthan are major hubs of solar energy r adiations. “When I think of Gujarat, I think of Rajasthan too. Gujarat is the f irst state in India to have a solar energy pol icy which was later adopted by the Government of India. World’s largest solar park with 3,000 MW capacity is being established in Gujarat jointly with Clin ton Foundation.
He suggested that Central Government may consider setting up huge solar power projects on western Indo-Pak border, which can be man aged by the Border Security Force (BSF). “I invite the industry to invest in solar equipment industry so as to promote in-house manuf acturing units in Gujarat,” he spoke to a hall packed of NRIs at a plenary session of Chief Ministers.
He s aid that when he became Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001, there w as a shortfall of 2,000 MW power in the State. Whereas the nation is still facing a similar situation, we introduced the Jyotigram sc heme to provide round-the-clock power in every nook and corner of Gujarat and today state has become, a power surplusstate. Shri Nar endra Modi said that Gujarat has 4,000 MW suplus electricity and it will gene rate 7,000 MW surplus power by the end of 2012, which is the overall production rate of many Indian states.
“Our vision is growth of Gujarat for India’s development. There are only four governments in the world who have responded very seriously to the issue of climate change. The Government of Gujarat h as a separate climate change dep artment. The renewable energy initiative has been taken up at a massive scale by the state.”
Shri Modi said that like the seven horses of God Sun, Gujarat has seven components of power at the Tapi river basin where there are seven power plants – nuclear, solar, thermal, bio-fuel, natural gas, hydro are based within a 20 km radius.
He proudly mentioned that while the Government of India h ad announced in budget 2011, a bro adband connectivity pilot project for 3,000 vill ages in India, all the 18,000 villages in Gujarat have been interlinked through broadband since 2009.
“This is our canvas of development. We have sought satellite technology from the Central Government and it will be used to propagate the model of E-governance in areas of telemedicine, agriculture, education, empowerment, rural development etc.”
While other Indian states are battling with short age of teachers in their education sec tor, Gujarat is the first in the country to establish a university to prepare world-cl ass teachers. Very soon we will be exporting teachers from Gujarat to rest of the world who will give birth to new generations of Indian roots, Shri Modi told a cheering audience of NRIs.
At present there are 41 universities in Gujarat including a University for Forensic Sciences where even world’s greatest security agencies send in queries to crack their c ases. Gujarat takes pride in setting up the Indian Institute of Temple Management which trains priests and send them to nearly 15 countries of the world with significant Indian population.
The Chief Minister s aid that best way to address any problem is to transform it into an opportunity. Spe aking of global recession, the Chief Minister apprised that Gujarat took the initiative to host Global Investors Summit in 2011 which invited a record investment of 450 billion US dollars. He advocated that Prime Minister may convene a roundtable conference of all the States, prominent economists and policy makers to address the economic meltdown. This will go a long way in developing a synergistic approach towards converting the slowdown into an opportunity for all to excel.
He further cited the example of Tata’s Nano car project which came to Gujarat after falling in troubled waters and h as become a success story followed by other auto majors establishing t heir manuf acturing bases in Gujarat. He stressed that within a dec ade, the State will be producing five million cars annually. Shri Modi told the gathering that the metro coach manufacturing factory in Gujarat has yielded tremendous results and today coaches are supplied to all metro projects.
The state of Gujarat has the biggest ship breaking industry in the world and we have moved from ship breaking to ship repairing to ship making industry. Gujarat plan to contribute five percent to the world’s entire ship building industry.
Shri Modi in formed the audience that according to Government of India’s recently released survey, Gujarat accounts for 72 percent of the total employment rate whereas rest of India stands at 28 percent. He further said that while the agriculture growth all over India stands at merely three percent since last 10 years, Gujarat has achieved 11 percent annual growth in agriculture in the same period.
Gujarat h as brought a miracle in milk production and value added products with its milk products exported to Singapore, Europe and other countries. We don’t have raw materials unlike other Indian states but strong manuf acturing units to produce world-class technologies and polished items. Gujarat does not have iron-ore mines but is num ber one in steel manufacturing. 90% of the world’s diamond processing is based in Gujarat. Mr. Modi shared the growth story and approach of the state towards which is based on inclusiveness and done with speed, skills and on a grand scale. The most important aspect of his talk was in a democratic set up, great work can be done and at a speed. NRIs felt strong sense of belonging and cheered him throughout his speech. He also answered a number of questions from the audience.
He received huge applause as he proposed that Gujarat should host the 2015 Prav asi Bharatiya Diwas to mark the centenary of Mahatama Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa on January 9, 2015. The date is significant in the history of India’s struggle for independence inspiring all NRIs around the world. He invited everyone to Gujarat to make the event a big success. He appealed to Mr. Vyalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indians Affairs to announce the hosting of 2015 edition of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Gujarat.
At State interaction session with NRIs, Shri Narendra Modi spoke on balanced developmentof Gujarat in industries, agriculture and social sec tor. He added that the present growth rate of tourism in Gujarat is double of the entire country put together. He also appealed to non-resident Indians to give the benefit of t heir skills to the country.
Shri Jitendra Sukhadia, Minister of State for NRGs and Tourism accompanied the Chief Minister to Gujarat Pavilion in the exhibition area. In his welcome address, Shri Arvind Agarwal, Principal Secretary, also said that NRIs have shown their keen interest in developmentof Gujarat while Shri Bharat Lal, Resident Commissioner, proposed the vote of thanks.
January 09, 2012
