Thakor Fatesinh Rathod Two more workers, who were suffering from silicosis and were working in the agate industry, have died in Khambhat in Central Gujarat. A People's Training and Research Centre (PTRC), the Vadodara-based NGO which has been taking up silicosis workers' problems for the last several years, has said that who who have "succumbed to their disease in this week" are Thakor Fatesinh Rathod, who died on March 30, 2014, and Jivan Kalidas Baraiya, who died on March 23, 2014. With this, the total number of those who have died as a result of the deadly disease this year has reached six.

Percent factories operational. Source: ASI report (March 2014) The latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) report, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, in March 2014, has revealed that out of a total of 22,220 factories in Gujarat, 17,529 are operational, suggesting that 21.11 per cent of the factories are either “closed” or are “not in operation”. This is higher than the all-India average of 19.33 per cent factories, “closed” or “not in operation”, but is lower than two major states out of 20 -- Haryana (21.42 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (37.95 per cent).

In an order, the Gujarat government has declared that the tribals and Dalits, who become victims of atrocities perpetrated by a group consisting of tribals or Dalits, on one hand, and other communities, on the other, would also be compensated under the prevention of scheduled tribe and caste (ST/SC) atrocities Act. Issued ahead of the declaration of the Lok Sabha elections, on February 24, 2014, the order has come in the wake of incidents like Patan gang rape case, in which two of the  five convicted for life  -- Manish Parmar and Ashwin Parmar -- were Dalits. Non-Dalits convicts are Kiran Patel, Mahendra Prajapati and Suresh Patel.

In a major boost to Gujarat, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India, has given environmental and coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) clearance for the development of all-weather port at Chhara village, Junagarh District, to its developers, the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. While giving the clearance, provided a week before Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi made the  controversial statement , accusing former Union environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan of charging what he called "Jayanthi tax" and derailing many a project, the MoEF agreed with the developers' view that the location of the site “is not an eco-sensitive area”, and the “nearest wetland is about three km away”.

ASI data:  % women workers in industrial sector The latest Annual Survey of Industries report, put out in March 2014, suggests that Gujarat’s industry employs nearly 35 per cent of its workers through contractors, which is proportionately the same as the country as a whole. At the same time, it says, women employees in the industry is on the decline.  The study, titled “India Labour and Employment Report 2014”, prepared by the a Delhi-based think-tank, Academic Foundation, says that labour markets have witnessed significant changes in the two decades, with a sharp increase informalization of the workforce. This has been happening at a time when the transfer of workers from agriculture to non-agriculture is slow, though with some acceleration in recent years, “but most of the employment generated has been informal and insecure”. Illustrating it by way of example, it says, “The percentage share of contract workers in organized manufacturing sector has increased from 13 per cent ...

Growth rate in 2012-13 at current prices. Source: CSO New revised data handed over to the Central Statistical Organization (CSO), Government of India, by all state governments, and in possession of Counterview, suggest that Gujarat’s growth rate for 2012-13 was 12.69 per cent (at current prices, without deducting inflation) as against 9.52 per cent, as earlier reported on the basis of Planning Commission data. Even then, the data suggest that Gujarat’s performance was worse than as many as 16 out of 20 major Indian states, and better than just three states -- Assam (12.56 per cent), Punjab (11.85 per cent), and Tamil Nadu (11.90 per cent). The Gujarat government has not released its data yet.

Gujarat government may be happy that Government of India reports have been saying that Gujarat has fewer unemployed than other states. However, latest reports, including the Academic Foundation’s “India Labour and Employment Report 2014” and the National Sample Survey Organisation’s “Employment and Unemployment Situation in India, 2011-12” report point towards the need to look at the problem of underemployment, which is higher in Gujarat than several Indian states. The Gujarat government has for long been claiming that its unemployment rate is one of the lowest. Quoting the Labour Bureau data, released by the Government of India, it said recently (click HERE to read) that Gujarat’s unemployment rate in the year 2011-12 “has the least unemployment rate among all states across the country”. Celebrating it as Gujarat government success, it officially declared, “According to the report, while India’s jobless rate stood at 3.8 per cent during the last fiscal, Gujarat showed lowest rate of ...

Raising a controversy, two well-known economists, Prof Jadgish Bhagwati and Prof Arvind Panagariya, known for what have been called “neo-liberal” views, have sought to justify Gujarat riots, saying that they were not a “pogrom” and were not targeted against any particular religious group. Professors at the Columbia University, so far both of them have refrained any comment on Gujarat riots, even as praising Gujarat’s economic growth model, and how, in their view, Gujarat development has led to improvement in the social sector, especially health and education.

A fresh report on labour and employment situation in India, prepared by a high-profile organisation, believes that low labour force participation rate in India is largely because the female labour force’s participation rate is dismally low.  “India Labour and Employment Report 2014”, published by Academic Foundation, New Delhi, which created a ripple recently for coming up with a report in association with several other institutes of learning which said Gujarat is No 1 state in economic freedom index, has ranked the state as No 12th out of a total of 21 states it has chosen for analysis for working out an Employment Situation Index. The report finds that Himachal Pradesh is the best state in employment state, ranking it No 1, followed by Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, and Rajasthan. Despite relatively low ranking of Gujarat in Employment Situation Index (ESI), the report says, “Generally workers in the southe...

Arvind Kejriwal A few days back, I received an email from a non-resident Indian, working as an expert researcher in a US consultancy firm which provides different types of financial services. He said he was googling around on Gujarat development issues and chanced to see my story, based on analysis carried out by an IAS officer who retired as additional chief secretary, Gujarat government, CJ Jose. He was “helping out” Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in any possible way he could, and had followed Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Gujarat closely. And, he had begun doing “some research” on the Gujarat development model, about which so much was being talked about. I am not revealing his name, as he asked me not to quote him. Referring to my story, his email said, “I know Kejriwal has questioned Modi’s claims of more than 10 per cent agriculture growth, and has said Gujarat agriculture growth has been 1.18 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), whereas you claim the growth to be 0.82 per cent. Could...

Has the Gujarat government’s “neo-liberal” economic persuasion, which presupposes that economic growth leads to automatic development of the social sector, including income, education and health, begun to work? It would seem to, if one of the latest reports, hurriedly released by the UPA government alongside the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections, is any indication. An updated version of the India Human Development Report 2011, released on March 11, 2014, suggests that Gujarat’s human development index (HDI) sharply rose by 26.77 per cent, between 2007-08 and 2011-12, which is one of the best in India!

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi may be continuing with his Chai pe charcha talk show through video conferencing across the country ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in order to capitalize his “image” as a tea seller during his early days. But, if a Right to Information (RTI) application reply is any indication, the Gujarat government has no specific plans for the petty entrepreneurs who, for instance, may be seeking to eke a living out of their roadside “enterprise” of selling tea, as tea vendors.

Overall Human Development Index “India Human Development Report 2011” was recently updated in view of new facts on income, education and health indices. Despite the fact that Gujarat has improved along with other states, its improvement is not as fast as the national average. The updated version of the “India Human Development Report 2011”, released at a seminar in New Delhi on March 11, 2014, has found that the six states which have low human development index (HDI) – Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam – have registered a much better improvement in HDI than several of the progressive states, including Gujarat. The report goes a long way to suggest that the percolation theory – which presupposes improvement in social sector even as economic growth rate improves — does not really work. Prepared by the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR), Planning Commission, the updated report states, “Despite lower absolute levels of HDI in poorer states (relativ...

The Citizens for Peace and Justice (CJP), the NGO fighting cases of 2002 Gujarat communal riot victims, has accused the Gujarat police for spreading “blatant falsehoods, twisted facts, deliberate jugglery of accounts and foul innuendos” in an attempt to implicate it in a fraud case. In a statement, the CJP said, the affidavit filed by KN Patel on behalf of the crime branch on March 18, 2014 that the CJP and social activists Teesta Setalvad and Javed Anand have been siphoning off Rs 75,28,000 belonging to the CJP and Sabrang Trust for personal use is based on “falsehoods, twisted facts, deliberate jugglery”.

A top US-based consultant which, many say, carried out Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi’s public relations (PR) job, especially in western countries, has praised the UPA government, fighting a losing battle against the NDA in the Lok Sabha elections. Eulogising the UPA’s economic performance, APCO Worldwide has said in a recent post on its  website , “After a series of significant policy changes starting in 1991, India today is a trillion-dollar market with an enviable rate of GDP growth.” It has added, “Today, India plays an increasingly important role in global geopolitics — not only as the world's largest democracy, but also as an economic powerhouse that is coming into its own.”

Slain MP Ehsan Jafri’s widow Zakia Ahsan Jafri has filed criminal revision application before the Gujarat High Court challenging the order of the metropolitan magistrate rejecting her protest petition seeking top “arraign” BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and 59 others on charges of “criminal conspiracy, abetment to commit mass murder, arson and rape and also tamper with evidence and destroy valuable records of the Gujarat home department.” She filed the revision appeal on March 15, 2014, which is expected to come up for hearing on March 20, 2014.

Legal structure and security of property: State rankings In a surprise observation, top pro-Narendra Modi economists Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari have criticized Gujarat -- which they say on “many parameters is a well-governed state” – for experiencing “a steep fall” in its score of “legal structure and security of property rights”. They find, Gujarat’s score on a scale of 0 to 1 for this has been constantly going from 0.54 in 2009 and 0.52 in 2011 to “just 0.39”, pushing its ranking from No 4 to No 9. The main parameters taken into account while analyzing “legal structure and security of property” include “the efficiency of the government in protecting human life and property”. 

Purchasing power of 20% poorest sections in rural areas (in Rs) Where do Gujarat’s people, especially the poor, stand vis-a-vis other states with regard to their purchasing power? The latest National Sample Survey Organisation report, released in late February 2014, gives some indication. A comparison of poverty levels of 17 major Indian states in the latest National Sample Survey (NSS) report, “Level and Pattern of Consumer Expenditure, 2011-12”, has suggested that Gujarat ranks No 8th in purchasing power among the poorest 20 per cent of the rural population and No sixth in purchasing power among the poorest 20 per cent of the urban population. Released in February 2014, the report, based on the survey which was carried out from mid-2011 to mid-2012, suggests that the spending capacity of 20 per cent of Gujarat’s population is less than Rs 993 per capita per month in the rural areas, and Rs 1449 per capita per month in the urban areas. Purchasing power of 20% poorest sections in urban...

In a new analysis, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the country’s powerful independent statistical organization, has sought to debunk the claim that Gujaratis and Bengalis are among the most mobile people of India. In its latest analysis, carried out by CMIE expert Mahesh Vyas, it has said, “Air passengers from West Bengal were 118 thousand per million population and those from Gujarat were 85,000 per million population. In comparison, Maharashtra had a traffic of 304 thousand per million population and Kerala was 285 thousand.”

  In what many may consider as another “expose” of the Gujarat development model sought to be sold across the country during the Lok Sabha elections, the latest National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report, “Level and Pattern of Consumer Expenditure, 2011-12”, released in February 2014, has revealed that the average spending capacity of Gujarat households, as reflected in monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE), is lower than 11 out of 20 major states in the rural areas and nine out of 20 major states in the urban areas. 

 In a fresh move, Gujarat’s top environmental body Paryavaran Mitra has wondered why is the Gujarat government reluctant to send more than 1,700 projects to the Government of India for environmental clearance pending delay in the formation of the State-level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) of the Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). Saying that the delay has stalled implementation of these projects, most of which are of small scale nature, Paryavaran Mitra said, the law is very clear that in case SEAC is not formed, projects should be sent to the Centre.

An ILO-sponsored study has suggested that Gujarat development has failed to end gender discrimination in the job market. In fact, Gujarat is one of the four Indian states, whose labour rate participation rate has registered a decline. The study, “Low Female Employment in a Period of High Growth: Insights from Primary Survey in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat”, commissioned by the International Labour Organization, and carried out by Santosh Mehrotra, Partha Saha, Ankita Gandhi, Kamala Devi and Sharmistha Sinha, for the Institute of Applied Manpower Research, Planning Commission, Government of India, has found that, despite being a developed state, Gujarat has a higher level of occupational segregation as well as gender-based wage disparity in most of the occupations. “In vast majority of cases, female workers did not have any social security benefits to fall back on. Household responsibilities, social obligations, and security concerns often forced females to accept rather unfavourable work ...

Industrial investment trend suggests that much of the propaganda around Gujarat development has little or no basis. While there has been sharp rise in industrial investment intentions, the actual implementation has taken a backseat, and so has employment generation.  At a time when there is an acceleration in propaganda across India about Gujarat’s developmental model, which has allegedly helped attract highest-ever investment in the state compared to any other of state of India, resulting in the claim of a sharp rise in employment, the Gujarat government’s own industries department data suggest that there is a huge gap between intended industrial investments and projected job creation and actual investment commissioned resulting in real employment. Worse, the data suggest that there has been a sharp deceleration in the rate of job creation as also actual implementation of projects in Gujarat. A major reason for this could be that, according to experts, Gujarat has all along been e...

During a 2012 accident at Alang Top environmental group Toxics Watch Alliance (TWA) has quoted "authentic sources" to say that as many as five workers, all of them migrants, were crushed to death at the Alang Shipbreaking Yard, along the beach of Bhavnagar in Gujarat, as a result of an accident at Plot No 20.This is against the official sources who said only two have died in an accident on march 11 late evening. TWA’s Gopal Krishna has reported, “I spoke to the officials in Gujarat and have reliably learnt that a total of 5 workers suffered during the fatal  accident after an iron plate fell on them.” He adds, “Three other workers are also in a critical condition and have been admitted in a private hospital in Bhavnagar by the plot holder.”

 A recent letter by Gujarat’s environmental organization, Paryavaran Mitra, to Dr V Rajagopal, secretary, ministry of environment and forests, Government of India, has revealed roughshod manner in which Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports for different developmental projects are prepared in India. Referring to the EIA report proposed by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for the Vadodara-Mumbai Expressway Project, the top environmental group has said, “The consultants for the NHAI have done a simple copy paste job", and “taken shortcut by copying and pasting the project descriptions from similar project of Ganga Expressway.”

Income generated from a rupee invested into net fixed assets The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), India’s topnotch independent economic thinktank headquartered in Mumbai, has suggested that half-a-dozen biennial Vibrant Gujarat business summits sponsored by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to whitewash the impact of the 2002 communal riots have failed achieve their desired result. In a recent commentary, it has said, the Gujarat industrial investment was severely hit “following the 2002 riots”, and the result was, the “net capital formation was negative for three consecutive years following the riots.”