Sunita Williams to meet Gujarat students

Gujarat Technological University (GTU) will host Indian-American astronaut Sunita Williams, who holds world record for the longest space flight by a woman, on April 6.

Williams who was bestowed an honorary doctorate degree by the GTU will visit the Chandkheda campus and will also deliver a talk to the students.

For this purpose, the GTU has issued a directive to all the affiliated colleges to send names of two top rankers in each branch of the college who is interested to remain present in the interaction by April 4.

These students will be shortlisted and then issued invitation cards to remain present in the campus to listen to Sunita Williams.

GTU officials said that scholastic students, learned faculties, experienced principals and directors, researchers and corporate associates will also be present.

"Nearly 200 students will be selected from those who show their willingness to interact with the astronaut. Students will be able to meet, interact and get valuable guidance and tips from Sunita Williams. She will be interacting with the participants from 9 am to 11 am at the designated venue", said GTU officials.

Mehsana, Gujarat - Tree count up 13 lakh in five years

Mehsana is fast greening up, with an increase of 13 lakh trees over five years. All eyes are now on Ahmedabad district, where the tree count begins on April 15.

Officials in the forest department said the count will be interesting because of the rapid urban development in the region. Officials said this will be the first tree census after the industrialization in Sanand and nearby areas began.

Officials said the census has gradually begun and in at least five districts, it is almost complete. The count in Mehsana has been finalized. The number of trees in the district increased from 2.23 crore to 2.36 crore. This was an increase of about 6% in the past five years.

The social forest department also carried out a survey on the uses of wood and byproducts of trees such as gum or 'datun', in villagers and the value of this industry. Officers said the social forestry department recently began a survey of just rural areas, to find out the increase in tree cover there, over the last five years. Officials said figures of the five districts have been collated.

H S Singh additional principal chief conservator of forests said: "The survey is being taken up in all rural areas of the state. We have been able finalize data for Mehsana district and it was revealed that the number of trees in rural Mehsana increased from 2.36 crore to 2.23 crore."

Singh said a study is also being up taken up simultaneously. This study will identify the usage of wood and tree products in villages and will also establish the value of this industry for that village. This will help the department to convince other villagers to protect their trees, by citing the monetary and other benefits of protecting trees.

According to the study, in Mehsana, the wood industry was worth about Rs 523 crore. Singh said it has been revealed during the study that leaves were used as fodder, firewood, branches for timber among others. He further said that about 31% of the villagers still use 'datum' to clean their teeth. He said that was also a huge industry in the rural areas and many families earn their livelihood by selling just datuns.

A senior officer from Mehsana said that at least 60% of the villagers still use wood for fire wood. Despite having gas connections, many people were using firewood to heat water during Winter among others uses.

Source TOI

Gujarat to have a dedicated cell for Film shooting

For the first time in six years, pockets of banks in Gujarat bulged with non-resident Indians’ (NRI) deposits in 2012.

Reason may be either removal of interest rate cap by RBI or the depreciating currency, or both, but with Rs5,734 crore more, deposits increased by 22% with the banks during this period. The total NRI deposits with banks in Gujarat increased to Rs31,179 crore by end of December 2012. NRI deposits contribute about Rs3.48 lakh crore, i.e., 9% of total deposits in Gujarat, reveals a State-level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC), December 2012 report.

Till 2011, NRIs used to get interest on deposits of around 4%. “Last year, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) removed the cap. With that, NRIs too could get rate of interest equivalent to citizens of the country. This is the basic reason of huge hike in NRI deposits in 2012,” said SLBC Convener and general manager of Dena Bank, Suresh Patel.

Since 2007, NRI deposits never grew beyond 20%. NRI deposits were Rs18,288 crore by end of 2006, which grew by a mere 4.53% in 2007. During global meltdown, in 2008 and 2009, NRIs had pumped more money in Indian banking systems and so NRI deposits grew by 9.02% and 7.29%, respectively. In 2010, experts believe stock market and real estate attracted NRIs’ money because of which growth was less than 1%. In 2011, it witnessed significant growth of 13.46% and net addition in NRI deposits was Rs3,018 crore.

Other financial experts believe that two more factors — weak currency and slowdown in western countries — along with RBI removing cap, have left the NRIs or NRGs with no choice but to invest in bank deposit schemes in India. In western countries, the interest rates on deposits is less than 3%, whereas here the NRIs are getting about 9%, said Forex expert, and executive director of Vadilal Forex & Consultancy Services, Aspy Bharuch.

“Last year, a cap on interest rate was removed. As a result, instead of getting 4% to 5%, now NRIs are getting around 9% of returns on deposits. Secondly, currency is depreciating which is also giving them returns of another 5%. Overall, NRIs are getting huge benefits in depositing money with banks in India,” Bharucha said, adding that if currency depreciates from present level, NRGs will gain further from it.

Bharucha further said that overseas markets are still shaky. “In Europe and the US, the interest rates on fixed deposits are less than 3%. Moreover, the economies of those countries are on shaky grounds,” said Bharucha.

Maximum flow of NRI deposits comes from the US and the UK, said chairman, GCCI NRG Committee, Kulin Patel. “This trend is likely to continue this year as NRGs will be getting highest returns in India compared to whole world. Interest rates in the US and EU countries are negligible against what they are getting in India. I also believe that NRGs have full faith on Indian banking system, particularly on nationalize and public sector banks,” he said.

Gir in Gujarat sees tourists double in 2012

The Asiatic lion in its last abode is proving to be a huge draw for tourists across the country. The flow of visitors is growing with each passing year. On an average about 1260 daily tourists have visited Gir forest in the year 2012. This was just 417 odd tourists in the year 2010-11.

In a written reply to the question of Talala MLA, Jasubhai Barad, forest and environment minister Ganpat Vasava said that in Sasan, from April 1 to December 31, 2012, a total of 3.02 lakh tourists visited the Gir forest. The reply stated that as there are three more months for the financial year to close, the numbers will be very high.

The minister said that this figure was only 1.50 lakh in the year 2010-11. In 2011-12, this number increased to 1.72 lakh but in 2012-13, there was a sudden rush and the figure crossed to 3.02 tourists.

The minister said that the increase in the number of tourists was only because of the campaign 'Khushboo Gujarat Ki'.

Officials at Gir said that the sanctuary had on November 14, received a record 9,384 tourists. This is 27% higher than the highest recorded number in the past few years. The previous best was 7,356 tourists in a single day last year.

Sources in the forest department said that looking at the rush, the forest department was forced to introduce additional 20-seater buses. Since the number of individual permits was only 150 a day, it was not easy to meet the rush and it was decided to have 20-seater buses. Last year, two such buses were pressed into service, but in 2012, 12 such buses were pressed into service in the Gir sanctuary with 14 other buses at the Devalia interpretation zone.

The heavy tourist inflow also paved way for large scale infrastructural growth. In the past one year, the number of hotel rooms has doubled in the area from 200 to over 450.

Ahmedabad,Gujarat plans 'home' for working women

Working women might find Ahmedabad safer than other cities of India, but finding an easy-on-the-pocket, safe accommodation continues to be a harrowing task.

But Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has come up with a solution in the matter. AMC’s Road & Building Committee on Monday approved construction of a working women’s hostel in Gulbai Tekra, Navrangpura.

This is probably the first time the civic body is constructing hostels for professionals.

The proposal to construct a working women’s hospital was announced by Municipal Commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra two years ago, which is seeing light-of-day now. AMC has identified 4,000 sq mt municipal plot in Gulbai Tekra where it aims to construct a five-storeyed accommodation facility for women.

“The hostel will have 52 rooms, with one common television and dining area on the first floor,” said a civic official concerned with the west zone. “We have also planned a dedicated parking area, reception and waiting area on the ground floor.” Each room will house two women.

Speaking of the current status of the project, the official informed that tenders have been invited and a practical bid has been announced. “The bidding is yet to begin. Construction is likely to start in two months,” he added. The project will take 18 months for completion, costing Rs9 crore to the central exchequer. The proposal includes construction of a commercial complex at Rs6 crore.

A similar working women’s hostel has been planned in the south zone as well.

Gujarat tourism shines at national awards, wins in 3 categories

Gujarat Tourism has bagged three national tourism awards for best tourism film, innovative use of information and technology and another in the category of best states for comprehensive development of tourism in the country.

In a statement released here, Gujarat government said its star tourism campaign; 'Khushboo Gujarat Ki' which features megastar Amitabh Bachchan was decorated with the prestigious National Tourism Award 2011-12 in the category of Award of Excellence- Best Tourism Film.

The statement also said Gujarat was adjudged the third best state in Comprehensive Development of Tourism while Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited also received the award for Most Innovative use of Information Technology.

5 lakh Gujaratis to participate in ‘Save Water’ campaign on May 5

At a time when neighbouring Maharashtra is facing the worst drought in 40 years, Gujarat is gearing up to conserve water on a war-footing: About five lakh people will gather in Rajkot district on May 5 to participate in a massive “yagna” at the end of a month-long save-water campaign across 4,800 villages of the Saurashtra region.

Being organised by the Surat-based Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust, the campaign, called the Saurashtra Narmada Jal Avataran Janjagriti Mahayagna, will be held at Bhadar dam in village Deola of Gondal taluka in Rajkot district. A 10,000-member committee has been constituted for the purpose. Ministers, MPs, MLAs and politicians will also participate.

The objectives of the massive campaign include closing down unproductive bore-wells.

Prior to the May 5 event, about 55,000 volunteers of the campaign will fan out for a month from April 1 and hold over 2,500 public meetings across the villages to create public awareness on how to save precious water, Mathurbhai Sawani, Chairman of the Trust, told Business Line on Tuesday.

Thousands of Surat-based natives of the Saurashtra region, who are sending representatives to the campaign, have collected nearly Rs 200 crore to provide free-of-charge JCB machines, cement and other material to the 2,000 village-level Jalsanchay Samitis for sinking new tube-wells and bore-wells for common use.

The Saurashtra region, which faced a series of severe droughts in the 1970-2000 period, had transformed this crisis into an opportunity as over two lakh check-dams were constructed in the last two decades to prevent wastage of precious rainwater. Despite erratic and late rains last monsoon, the region is not as parched as it once used to be. In 1998-99, drinking water was being transported in trains from Gandhinagar to Jamnagar, a distance of more than 400 km. It was the check-dam miracle that Gujarat was able to achieve over 11 per cent growth in agriculture in the last few years.

Now, the Trust has chalked out a five-point programme for better water use and conservation: water collection, popularising use of drip-and-sprinkler irrigation across fields, dismantling unusable and very deep bore-wells and tube-wells as they drain out water from the depths of the earth, optimum use of Narmada waters in Saurashtra and working for the success of the proposed Kalpsar Project for creating a sweet-water reservoir in the Gulf of Cambay.

As summer approaches, the Gujarat Government is also planning to fill up 115 dams and rivers with Narmada waters.

Keywords: Gujarat water conservation drive, 5 lakh Gujaratis to assemble at Rajkot, yagna to mark end of save-water campaign, Saurashtra region, Saurashtra Narmada Jal Avataran Janjagriti Mahayagna, Saurashtra Jaldhara Trust

Source:The Hindubusines

Gujarat adds highest new mobile users in Jan 2013

After a disappointing month of December 2012 which saw net subscriber additions dwindling across telecom circles, the month of January 2013 has brought some cheer for about nine telecom operators.

Among all the 22 circles, it is Gujarat which has seen the maximum net subscriber additions of over 470,000 in the month of January 2013, according to the latest figures by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Following Gujarat are other circles like Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal, UP (East), Madhya Pradesh, UP (West), Delhi and Maharashtra who added net subscribers in January as against a dip in net additions in December 2012. However, the remaining circles saw further dip in the same.

In terms of telecom operators, Unitech's Uninor continued its growth streak in Gujarat circle by registering maximum number of net subscriber additions in January at 219,935, followed closely by Idea Cellular at 208,017.

The other operators that saw rise in net additions in Gujarat for the month of January 2013 include Bharti Airtel (172759), BSNL (10789), Vodafone (10000) and R
eliance (3803).

However, operators like Tata  (-61884), Videocon  (-38501) and Sistema (MTS) (-7626) posted further dip net additions in Gujarat circle.

It needs to be mentioned here that in Uninor, Idea and BSNL were the only telecom operators in Gujarat to have registered positive net additions during the month of December 2012.

Even nationally, Uninor emerged as the leader in growth in net additions in the month of January 2013 among all telecom operators for wireless subscribers at 918,552.

Nationally, the number of telephone subscribers in India decreased to 893.15 million at the end of January, 2013 from 895.51 million at the end of December 2012, thereby showing a monthly growth rate of -0.26 per cent. The share of urban subscribers has declined to 61.87 per cent from 62.20 per cent whereas share of rural subscribers has increased to 38.13 per cent in the month of January 2013. With this, the overall teledensity in India decreased to 73.07 at the end of January, 2013 from 73.34 of the previous month.

Source: Business Standard