Gujarat

Gujarat Tourism by Amitabh Bachan must see..

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Gujarat The Best Performing State of India

  • India's largest private gas distribution company Gujarat Gas Company Ltd
  • India's largest pipe-maker Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren (WGSRL)
  • Gujarat is the largest producer of milk in India
  • Hitachi’s facility in Gujarat is the largest AC manufacturing facility in India under a single shed
  • Ahmedabad (India'sseventh largest city)
  • Surat is the fastest growing city in the world
  • Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) is India's largest food products marketing organization
  • Gujarat is India's largest producer of cotton
  • World's largest graveyard for ships is in Alang,Gujarat
  • Gujarat is the largest gas consumer and accounts for 30% of India's gas consumption currently
  • Gujarat and has emerged as the country’s top banana exporter.
  • India's largest liquefied natural gas importer, PETRONET LNG LTD,
  • Gujarat NRE Coke is the largest independent coke manufacturer in India
  • Gujarat state, India's biggest grower of peanuts
  • Udhana is one of India's largest industrial centres
  • Gujarat Fluorochemicals Limited (GFL) operates India's largest refrigerant plant
  • Gujarat based Mamata Machinery Pvt., Ltd., India's largest manufacturer and exporter of servo-driven plastic pouchmaking and bagmaking machines
  • Kutch in Gujarat is one of India's largest districts
  • Gujarat based Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone Limited (MPSEZ) is India's largest private port
  • Gujarat--which is the home of India's largest vegetarian population
  • Gujarat based Kandla, Asia's first and largest multi-product special economic zone
  • Gujarat based Kandla port is also India's largest port with a capacity of 39 MMTPA
  • India's largest butterfly park is in Gujarat's Surat city
  • Gujarat based GACL is India's largest chlor-alkali producer.
  • Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilizers Company Ltd India's largest producer of Formic Acid, Acetic acid and Methanol
  • Gujarat based Mundra refinery is one of India's largest and most sophisticated oil refineries for processing edible oils
  • Gujarat has the longest coastline in India (1600 kilometers)
  • Gujarat Glass Ltd Largest manufacturer of Pharmaceutical glass bottles in India.
  • Pipavav, home to India's first largest ship building yard in the private sector in western Gujarat
  • India's largest Glass fiber reinforced polyester(GRP) pipe manufacturing facility, Pacific Pipe Systems Pvt. Ltd(PPSPL), located near Sanand Gujarat.
  • Gujarat is the largest produced of salt in India
  • Amul is India's largest food brand in India
  • Gujarat has the largest flamingo colony in the world
  • In 1980, Gujarat notified India's first Marine Sanctuary
  • Ahmedabad has India's largest textile museum, Calico Museum
  • Jamnagar in Gujarat is home to the world's largest industrial estate and grassroots refinery
  • CNBC-TV18 - Gujarat posts 12.8% agriculture growth, highest in India (2008-09)
  • Gujarat Sidhee Cement Ltd India's highest exporter of cement clinker
  • Gujarat is having the highest no. of operating airports in India (Total 12)
  • Gujarat has India’s longest OFC network (optic fibre network).

Gujarat to Set Up India’s 
First Police Varsity

For the first time in India, a police security force university — Raksha Shakti University — will come up in Gujarat to meet the growing demand of efficient, trained and professional manpower in the police and other security forces.

The state government will introduce a Bill in the Legislative Assembly to this end during the ongoing Budget Session. Minister of State for Home Amit Shah had announced this in the House last week.

According to Shah, the proposed university seeks to provide unique opportunity to the youth of the state to build their career in the police and other security forces.

Besides, it seeks to train and prepare manpower through this proposed university to tackle challenges posed by terrorism, cyber crime, economic and telecommunication offences and other offences that require expertise in forensic science.

The proposed Raksha Shakti University will offer degree, diploma and in- service courses, and also undertake capacity building courses with the help of modern technology for managing issues relating to internal security, terrorism, organised crime, economic offences and juvenile crimes.

It will also undertake research work in various fields of police administration and security management.

The proposed university will be headed by a person who will be designated as director general. The person to be appointed for this post should have served in any State/Central police department/organisation or military/paramilitary forces.

Other officers to be appointed for the proposed university would be a deputy director general, a director of research and development, deans and a registrar.

The university will have a 10-member Board of Governors, which will include, among others, a police officer not below the rank of Additional DGP, an official from the Home Department not below the rank of Secretary, a Secretary-level officer from the Education Department and the Director of the National Cadet Corps in Gujarat.

Shah told Khaleej Times that Gujarat was the only state which had taken initiatives in setting up a forensic science university, a law university and now a ‘raksha shakti’ university.

Gujarat Fluoro a Gujarat based company is first Indian co to sell carbon credits

Apr 07, 2005

Gujarat Fluoro Chemicals is among four companies worldwide to get its carbon emission reduction project certified. The other three are a hydro fluorocarbon decomposition project in Korea, a hydro project in Honduras and a landfill gas project in Brazil.

Source: The Financial Express

First metro train built in India in Gujarat

The first indigenously produced metro train at Bombardier’s newly set up factory here is a template fit for pan-India replication, said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend.

The brand new train, built at the factory set up in a record time of 18 months, has many firsts to its credit. Known as Movia, it is the first metro train to be built in India. The whole project from conception to rollout has been completed within 24 months.

The factory, which has a capacity to churn out a coach a month, will be supplying 81 trains consisting of 424 coaches for Phase II of the Delhi Metro railway before the start of the Commonwealth Games in the Capital next year.

Speaking at the train unveiling ceremony, Mr. Modi described the eco-friendly train as a gift from Gujarat to the nation on World Environment Day.

Unlike vehicular road traffic that accounts for 84 per cent of the total carbon emission released into the atmosphere and air traffic that releases another 15 per cent, metro trains have a low emission of just one per cent.

Citing the case of Japan where super-fast train facilities have been provided by the government bringing far ends of the country closer, Mr. Modi made out a case for introduction of similar trains all over India.

“We have been urging the Union Government to introduce high-speed trains between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. If that was done, then the coming together of the two financial hubs will strengthen the country’s growth,” he said.

He also expressed hope that in the forthcoming Railway budget the Centre would make provisions for high-speed bullet trains.

“Gujarat is ready to assist in providing resources and inputs required for the introduction of such infrastructure,” he said.

Some Gujarat's based Companies

ABB
Asea Boveri Brown (ABB) is a global leader in power and automation technology that enables utility and industry customers to improve performance while reducing environmental impact. ABB's state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Vadodara is a global sourcing base for outdoor and indoor circuit breakers. The ABB Group operates in 100 countries. In India it has a vast installed base, extensive local manufacturing and a countrywide marketing and service presence. ABB posted revenues of US$ 327 million in 2003.

Aditya Birla Group
It is the 11th largest cement producer in the world, seventh-largest, in Asia. It is one of the Fortune 500 companies of AB Group, one of world’s largest aluminium rolling companies. Also, it is one of the biggest producers of primary aluminium in Asia and at the same time the third-largest producer of insulators. It is among the fastest growing copper companies in Asia. It has 10 manufacturing units across Gujarat (highest).

AT&T India
AT&T India, a subsidiary of AT&T, USA, is based in Gujarat since 1984. The company has established a brand name in the telecom services sector. It offers networking and communication equipment to telecom operators. In collaboration with the Aditya V Birla Group, AT&T operates Idea Cellular in Gujarat. AT&T is a three-time winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the US, and winner of Japan's Deming Prize and Taiwan's National Quality Award.

Adani Group
Established in 1988, it is the largest trading house in India, leading trader in coal, wheat, castor oil, petroleum, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), power trading, iron-ore and pulses. It has a well developed natural gas distribution network. It has established India’s largest edible oil refinery in the State. it is also involved in development of Mundra Port – second port to be privatised in Gujarat. It has proposed the establishment of multi purpose port at Mundra, in JV with Petronet LNG.

Bayer
Bayer AG, the German chemical giant, is a Fortune 500 company with global sales of US$ 33 billion. Represented by 350 companies across five continents, it has a total workforce of I 15,400 people. Its business operations are the responsibility of the subgroups - Bayer HealthCare AG, Bayer CropScience AG and Bayer MaterialScience AG. In Gujarat, the company operates through Bayer CropScience Ltd, Bayer Diagnostics India Ltd and Bilag Industries Private Ltd.

Bosch Rexroth (India) Ltd
Bosch Rexroth (India) Ltd, a subsidiary of Bosch Rexroth AG, Germany, was established in 1975. The company provides comprehensive drive and control solutions in industrial and mobile applications through hydraulics, electric drives and controls, linear drives and guides, pneumatics. The company has close to 300 employees and recorded total sales of US$ 23 million in 2003. Its facility at Ahmedabad manufactures hydraulic valves, pumps, blocks, cylinders and power units. Bosch has sales offices, service centres and training centres in Ahmedabad serving customers in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

British Gas
British Gas is a leading player in the global energy market. In India, the company has a majority shareholding (65 per cent) in Gujarat Gas Company Ltd. The company's principal lines of business are natural gas distribution, transmission systems, compressed natural gas (CNG), gas supplies and natural gas.

E.I. Dupont
Dupont India became a wholly owned subsidiary of E.I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company Inc., USA, in 1994. The company has invested close to US$ 80 million in India and manufactures Tynex toothbrush bristles, Teflon non-stick coating, engineering polymers, crop protection products and pioneer seeds. The company's facility in Savli, Gujarat, manufactures crop protection products and engineering polymers.

Essar Group
It is a diversified business group with enterprise value over US$ 20 billion. Its business portfolio includes steel, energy, power, communication, shipping and logistics and construction. Its business operation locations are Mumbai, Gujarat (Ahmedabad, Hazira, Vadinar), Vishakhapatnam. It is the largest producer of sponge iron and also largest exporter of flat steel products (Steel plants in Gujarat – Hazira, Vishakhapatnam). It focuses on on global expansion with projects in Canada, USA, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia,

GE Plastics India Ltd (GEPIL)
GE Plastics India Ltd is a 50:50 joint venture between Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) and General Electric Plastics BV, Netherlands. The company has a world-class plant for advanced engineering plastics, alloys, blends and compounds at Vadodara in Gujarat. With a present capacity of 25,000 tonnes per annum, it manufactures a wide range of GE's proprietary products. In 1996, GEPIL also became the first global manufacturing site of General Electric Plastics to start manufacturing GELON* (Polyamide-6) compounds.

General Motors India
Founded in 1908, GM is the world’s largest auto maker. In 2006, it sold 9.1 million cars and trucks globally. It is the global industry sales leader for 76 years and has an employee strength of 2,84,000 people around the world. Headquartered in Detroit (USA), GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. General Motors India, incorporated in 1994, became a fully owned subsidiary of GM in 1999. It has 45,000 Sq. Mt. plant in Halol (Panchmahal), Gujarat, it produces Opel Corsa, Corsa Sail, Chevrolet Optra, and Chevrolet Tavera.

Grasim Industries Ltd
Grasim Industries Ltd, incorporated in 1947, originally a textile manufacturer, successfully diversified into Viscose Staple Fibre (VSF) cement, sponge iron and chemicals. The first phase of Grasim's fourth VSF plant was commissioned in Kharach, Gujarat, in 1996. It is now a global leader in VSF, the country's largest merchant producer of sponge iron and the second-largest caustic soda maker in India and poised to be India's largest cement manufacturer.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF)
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation is a state level apex body of milk cooperatives in Gujarat and one of India's largest food products marketing organisations. With about 2.28 million producer members, its total milk handling capacity is about 6.7 million litres per day. The company has a wide range of products under its flagship brand Amul. These include milk and milk products, ice creams, chocolates, confectioneries and beverages. The company achieved a total turnover of about US$ 575 million during 2002-03, recording a growth of 15 per cent over the previous year.

Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd (GACL)
Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd is India's leading manufacturer and exporter of cement. It is also India's most profitable cement company and the world's least cost cement producer. GACL is the only cement company to be awarded the National Quality Award and the first Indian cement company to receive an ISO 9002 quality certification.

Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals Ltd
Gujarat State Fertilisers & Chemicals Ltd operates in three business segments: fertiliser products, caprolactam and nylon products. It also manufactures nylon-6, nylon filament yarn, nylon chips and melamine and polymer products.

Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers Company Ltd (GNFCL)
Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers Company Ltd is a joint venture company between GSFC and the Gujarat Government. GNFC has the largest fuel-based ammonia plant in the world. It is also the largest single stream urea plant to be commissioned in the world. This project was set with an investment of about US$ 100 million at Bharuch, Gujarat.

Huber Chemicals India Ltd
Huber Chemicals India Ltd is a subsidiary of JM Huber Corp, Germany. It is in the chemicals and engineering business and has a facility at Jhagadia, an industrial estate in Bharuch, Gujarat.

Ingersoll-Rand India Ltd (IRIL)
Ingersoll-Rand India Ltd was established in 1926. The company has interests in fields of air solutions and infrastructure. IRIL has a plant in Naroda, near Ahmedabad. The Naroda facility is ISO 9001 certified and caters to a major chunk of the global demand for air-cooled reciprocating air compressors (T 30). The metrology laboratory at this facility is one of the few sophisticated laboratories in India with facilities to conduct tests as per ISI/BSI standards.

Lalbhai Group
The Lalbhai Group, founded in 1908 has grown to become one of India's most diversified business houses, with a significant presence in the textiles, ready-to-wear, agro-chemicals and telecom industries. Arvind Mills Ltd, one of the Group companies, is one of the world's largest producers of denim fabric. Atul Ltd is a leading manufacturer and exporter of over 500 high quality products, including agrochemicals, bulk drugs and bulk drug intermediates, cresols and cresol derivatives, dyes and dye intermediates, epoxy resins and epoxy hardeners, formaldehyde, specialty chemicals and wood adhesives.

Larsen and Toubro Ltd (L&T)
Larsen & Toubro Ltd is one of India's largest engineering and construction companies. The company has its heavy engineering workshops at Hazira, which manufactures reactors, pressure vessels, columns and heat exchangers for various industries. L&T's workshops are ISO 9001:2000, ISO 14001:1996 and OHSAS 18001:1999 certified.

Matsushita
Matsushita of Japan is a leader in battery products worldwide. In India, Matsushita has a joint venture with the Lakhanpal Group. The company manufactures batteries and battery appliances under the brand Novino and its plant is located at Makarpura Industrial Estate, Vadodara, in Gujarat.

Nirma
Nirma, a US$ 351 million company, is another of Gujarat's success stories. It is the largest detergent manufacturer in India. It has a sales force of over 3,50,400 distributors, over 1 million retailers, and 300 million consumers. Its product line includes cosmetics, soaps, detergents and salt. The company has multi-locational integrated manufacturing facilities and a broad product portfolio under its umbrella brand, Nirma. It manufactures India's largest selling detergent powder and exports to the Middle East and other countries. The company has planned backward and forward integration projects and is focusing on a strong R&D base for continuous product development.

Novartis India Ltd
Novartis India Ltd is a US$ 100 million company that employs close to 1,000 people. The company has two manufacturing facilities, at Kandla and Panoliplant in Gujarat dealing mainly in pharmaceuticals and agrochemical intermediates. In India, Novartis has collaborations with several domestic players, including Dr Reddy's, Torrent and Biocon.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)
Reliance Industries Ltd. is India’s largest and only private sector company to feature in Fortune Global 500 list of World. Having annual earnings of over US$ 25 billion (2006-2007), it has manufacturing facilities at three places in Gujarat namely Naroda, Jamnagar and Hazira. Its product line mainly includes synthetic textiles, fabrics, fibre intermediates, plastics, polyester, chemicals and petrochemicals. Its proposed establishment of Petroleum and Petrochemicals SEZ at Jamnagar is worth (US$ 1.1 billion).

Royal Dutch Shell
The Shell Group is a world leader in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business. In Gujarat, Shell's Hazira project is the largest of its ventures in India with investment over US$ 600 million. The company's operation at Hazira is considered to be the highest ever FDI in a greenfield project in India. The project includes a port and an LNG terminal together with infrastructure that can handle 5 million metric tonnes of LNG per annum.

Rasna
Rasna holds 93 per cent market share in Indian soft drink concentrate market. It accounts for 82 per cent of in-house consumption of soft drink market and also has a wide range of products in processed foods category.

Siemens Ltd
Siemens Ltd is a 54.6 per cent subsidiary of Siemens AG. Based in Ahmedabad, the subsidiary manufactures electrical equipment, medical equipment, railway signalling equipment, telecom and data communication equipment and a host of other electrical products. The company has over 4,000 employees and a revenue of over US$ 315 million.

Torrent Group
Torrent Group's flagship Torrent Pharmaceuticals established its first manufacturing facility at Vatva in Gujarat in 1980. Its second plant began operations in 1989 in Mehsana district. These facilities manufacture bulk drugs and formulations. The manufacturing facilities have received ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18000 (Occupational Health and Safety Management System) certifications and the IDMA (Indian Drug Manufacturing Association) Gold Award for the year 2002.

Tata Chemicals Limited
An ISO-9001 /14001 certified company, Tata Chemicals Limited is India's leading manufacturer and marketer of inorganic chemicals and fertilisers. Established in 1939, Tata Chemicals operates India's largest manufacturing facility for soda ash at its integrated chemical complex at Mithapur on the Gujarat coast in Western India and is also among the world's largest producers of synthetic Soda Ash. Its range of chemicals produced at the Gujarat plant includes - apart from soda ash - caustic soda, salt, cement, sodium bicarbonate, bromine and bromine based compounds and gypsum. The plant has an installed capacity of 875,000 tonnes of soda ash, nearly 35 per cent of the country's capacity.

The 'avoid, reduce and recycle' philosophy that the company follows is exemplified best at its cement plant at Mithapur. The company is also a signatory to Responsible Care, a voluntary global initiative of the Chemical industry that demonstrates allegiance to safety, health and environmental issues. Mithapur has won the highest British Safety Council 5-star rating. The company has also developed the Mithapur salt works as a natural habitat for thousands of migratory birds and is pioneering marine conservation efforts through its active participation and support of the Whale Shark project.

Welspun
It has presence across 50 countries and its business activities include home textiles, saw pipes and steel, specialty texturised polyester yarn, bathrobes and retail. It is among top two terry towel producers and largest manufacturers of specialty polyester filament. It is also among the largest SAW pipe manufacturers in Asia.

Gujarat the first and only state government in India to start chess programs in Schools

Students in Gujarat would be offered chess coaching to boost their thinking skills under an idea being pushed from within State Government. This has been announced in the last week by Gujarat State Chess Association president and Home Minister Amit Shah. Gujarat is the the first and only state government in India to start chess programs in schools.

In an attempt to promote chess in schools, the Gujarat government will conduct training programmes for teachers who would help spread the game in their schools. Announcing the programme, Gujarat State Chess Association president and Home Minister Amit Shah said: "The programme of today may be a small affair but our initiative to bring home chess to school children is a giant step."

As part of the programme, a week-long training of 1,500 school teachers began Monday at the Rifle Club here. The first batch comprising 200 school teachers will be trained for a week for five hours followed by the second batch. The training will proceed until the end of July, said Shah, also the president of Gujarat State Chess Association.

"We have undertaken to provide a platform for children to showcase their talents at the national and international level in the future," Shah said. The Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank is sponsoring the training programme. "What is notable today is that for the first the state government is directly involved in encouraging the game of chess," said the bank chairman Ajaybhai Patel.

Gujarat No 1 in Public Private Partnership

Gujarat No 1 in Public Private Partnership

Jamnagar in Gujarat is home to the world's largest industrial estate and grassroots refinery.

Kandla has Asia's first and India's largest multi-product Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

The chemical industry in Gujarat accounts for half of the annual investment in the state and contributes to more than 20 per cent of India's chemical output.

Gujarat also accounts for 40 per cent of India's pharmaceutical production with major players like Cadila, Sun Pharma, Alembic, Torrent and Sarabhai being present in the state.

The gems and jewellery industry in Gujarat accounts for over 80 percent of India's total diamond exports


BSNL Launches India’s First High-speed Wireless Broadband Network in Gujarat

Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Ltd (BSNL), India’s state-owned and largest telecommunications company, and SOMA Networks, Inc., a leading provider of WiMAX solutions, today announced the commercial launch of “BSNL Wireless Broadband” service in the state of Gujarat. Broadband connectivity means high-speed, always on, Internet access, in homes and offices. What is special about this wireless service is that it can reach even those places where there is no wired infrastructure.

“We are extremely pleased that the people of Gujarat are the first to benefit from this ambitious wireless broadband project,” said Mr. Satya Pal, Chief General Manager, BSNL Gujarat Telecom Circle. “BSNL’s service is not just for the urban elites, but will connect India’s underserved population with the same high-quality broadband experience, but without the wait and without the wires.”

Gujarat RTO (Bhilad)- VAPI-India's First Computerized Check Post

Gujarat RTO (Bhilad)- VAPI-India's First Computerized Check Post

World’s Largest Solar Energy Project (5GW!) Planned for Gujarat, India


Now this is a world record worth talking about! Although still very much at the planning stage, The Business Standard is reporting that the Clinton Foundation is investigating developing what would be by far the world’s largest solar energy project in the western Indian state of Gujarat.

Over Five Times the Size of the Current Largest Solar Project
The project would be an ‘integrated Solar City’ with a capacity of 5 gigawatts. Yes, 5 gigawatts.

The facility is expected to cost Rs 200-billion (approximately $475-million) and will produce all raw materials and manufacture all panels on site. Hence ‘integrated Solar City’. This is expected to reduce costs so that the power produced at the site will cost about Rs 4 ($0.10) per (unspecified) unit. It has not been disclosed whether the project would employ solar photovoltaic or solar thermal technology.

The government of Gujarat is considering a Kutch or Banaskanta location—in the westernmost part of the state near the border with Pakistan for those people for whom Indian geography isn’t a strong point—for the project.

Project Would Be Significantly Larger Than Fossil Fuel Power Plants
At about five times the capacity of a typical coal or nuclear plant, this project would certainly a big step in the right direction towards making solar power a greater part of India's power mix. Recently prime minister Manmohan Singh announced that solar power would be a key part of his plan to deal with climate change.

Currently, the largest solar energy project in the world is a solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert being developed by BrightSource, with an eventual capacity of up to 900 megawatts.

via :: The Business Standard

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Gujarat has special courts for bounced cheques

The state will have eight special courts for dealing with cases of bounced cheques. Cases of bounced cheques are increasing and there are more than 1.25 lakh cases pending in various courts.

The courts would be inaugurated on Saturday. They would work in the old collector office in Gheekanta area. Eight judges have been appointed for the courts. Such cases are dealt with 138 of negotiable instrument act and there is a provision of penalty and imprisonment.

E-governance in Gujarat has reduced corruption : IIMA

Computerization in various government departments have proved beneficial to the citizens. The direct cost savings averaged Rs.60-110 and it has also helped reduce corruption to some extent.

These are the findings of a study on‘Impact Assessment of e-Government projects’ by Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar of IIM Ahmedabad. The report was released on Wednesday at a two day workshop jointly organized by the IIMA and Department of Information Technology, Government of India. The primary objectives of the workshop is to share the findings and learning from the impact assessment study, and to identify a new set of mature e-governance projects that could be assessed in the next phase.

Three state-level e-government projects – vehicle registration, property registration and land records across twelve states, and three national-level projects implemented by the Income Tax department, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and Regional Passport Offices were assessed. Large samples of citizens and businesses using the manual and computerized delivery of these services were surveyed by eleven established market research agencies to measure the impact. The survey was done under the supervision of IIMA.

Assessment results indicated an abysmal state of delivery of services in the existing manual system in all the three types of projects. The study revealed that users need to make 3-4 trips to government offices on an average (up to 8 trips in some cases), wait for two hours or more (up to 6 hours in some cases) in each trip and indicates corruption practices (20 to 50% of all transactions) to get services. Even in a simple service such as issue of a copy of land record, the elapsed time (submission of application to receipt of document) averaged 5 days. For property registration and drivers license, the average time (over 12 states) was 32 and 23 days respectively.

However, basic computerization has helped a lot. For instance, in all three services, the number of trips to offices reduced by 1 to 2 after computerization whereas waiting time has been reduced by 20 to 40%. Direct cost savings to citizens averaged rupees 60-110 across all states. Although the outcome in reducing corruption is mixed, e-government seems to have the potential for significant reduction in corruption. It has been observed that corruption has either been eliminated or significantly reduced in five out of the ten states after land record computerization whereas it has become very marginal in property registration and transport services.

The study reveals a great deal of difference in the performance of the best and the worst state in the three computerized applications. Based on an overall rating Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu rank high in all three projects.

Among the three national-level projects, Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA21) appears to have had the most positive impact on the users on key dimensions covered in this study. The passport project has had virtually no impact. Results of the Income Tax survey indicate that whereas corporate users have benefited on some aspects, individual filers have not benefited significantly. The varying degree of impact can be explained by the difference in the extent of computerization and process reform done in each of the projects.

R Chandrashekhar, Special Secretary, Department of IT, Government of India inaugurated the workshop. Prof. Samir Barua, Director IIMA said that e-governance is clearly the way forward to improve governance in all kinds of organizations.

NASSCOM award for Gujarat VAT e-governance project

The Gujarat government has got NASSCOM award for best e-governance in Value Added Tax(VAT) system for 2008. Under this system the government has introduced e-filing of returns, e-payment, e-registration and e-refund besides other facilities.

The award has been given for “ Best IT adoption through e-governance”. The state had earlier received two national level awards for the above project.

Godrej Ahmedabad township selected for climate programme

odrej group's proposed 270-acre Ahmedabad township Godrej Garden City has been selected by Clinton Climate Initiative's Climate Positive Development Programme (CPDP) for clean and green urban development. It is one of the 16 founding projects being taken up globally under the programme. Climate Positive real estate developments will strive to reduce the amount of on-site CO2 emissions to below zero.

The 16 projects, which aim at providing one million people living and working opportunities in climate positive communities, include projects in Ahmedabad and Jaipur in India, Melbourne, Palhoca in Brazil, Toronto and Victoria in Canada, outside Panama City, Pretoria and Johannesburg in South Africa, Seoul, Stockholm, London, as well as San Francisco and Destiny (Florida) in the US.

CPDP, launched by former US president Bill Clinton on May 19, 2009 in Korea, will support development of large-scale urban projects that demonstrate cities can grow in ways that are climate positive'.

"Climate Positive real estate developments will strive to reduce amount of on-site CO2 emissions to below zero. Along with other founding projects, Godrej Garden City will demonstrate Climate Positive strategies, setting a compelling environmental and economic example for cities to follow," a release said.

To reduce net greenhouse gas emissions of their Climate Positive Development projects to below zero, property developers and local governments will work in partnership on specific areas of activity.

This includes implementing economically viable innovations in buildings, the generation of clean energy, waste management, water management, and transportation and outdoor lighting systems.

"Godrej Properties looks forward to working towards achieving the goal of a climate positive development in our upcoming Ahmedabad township," said Godrej Properties executive director Pirojsha Godrej.

According to estimates, while 2008 saw half the world's population or nearly 3.2 billion people living in cities, the number is expected to grow to 70 per cent by 2050. Cities also occupy just 2 per cent of the world's landmass, yet are responsible for more than two-thirds of global energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. How cities change and grow is therefore a critical component to tackling the climate crisis, the release added.

Gujarat CM office gets ISO 9001 first in the country

Office of the Gujarat Chief Minister has got ISO certification. A certificate of ISO: 9001 was presented to the CM Narendra Modi in the inaugural session of the Gujarat Global Investors Summit 2009 at the Science City here on Monday.

Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office is the first in the country to get ISO-9001 certificate.

Ahmedabad, the biggest city of Gujarat, tops in the use of internet among mini metros in India

Ahmedabad, the biggest city of Gujarat, tops in the use of internet among mini metros in the country. Kids here beat kids in the areas known as IT hubs in the country. This has emerged as a major finding in a TCS survey in four metros and eight mini metros in India engaging 14,000 students.

However, the trend of use shows that much of this is used for surfing information about films and celebrity gossip. The internet penetration is 63 percent in Ahmedabad homes whiuch is quite impressive, the study says.

Gujarat Food and Drug Laboratory first to get NABL

State Government’s Food and Drug Laboratory in Vadodara is the first Food and Drug Laboratory in the country to get accreditation of National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories.

The state government had allotted Rs.4 crore during the last two years for providing latest equipments in the laboratory. A quality policy and quality manual were prepared and training was given to the scientists.

With this the government has started procedure for getting NABL accreditation for Bhuj and Rajkot laboratories. For Bhuj a provision of Rs.24 lakh and for Rajkot Rs.55 lakh has been made.