Income generated from a rupee invested into net fixed assets By Rajiv Shah 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.”

By A Representative In a signed letter to the district collector, Ahmdabad, several villagers have said that land allotment to Maruti India Ltd in village Hansalpur has been carried out "in violation of their land rights." Wanting the district collector to order stoppage of the construction of a boundary wall around the land allocated to Maruti at a time when the matter is yet sub judice, the letter says, “We feel that a grave injustice is being done to us.” Originally given to to Maruti India Ltd, the land is being transferred to Suzuki Co Ltd for reasons which have still not been made public.

A banner displayed at the meet By A Representative In a development which is likely to have far-reaching impact on the proposal to develop an ultra mega nuclear power plant on the southern Saurashtra coast of Gujarat, the gram panchayats of five villages have passed a resolution declaring the entire Mithi Virdi-Jasapara region as Nuclear Free Zone.” In a statement, Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti (PSS), Gujarat’s environmental body, has said, “This is the area where the Manmohan Singh-Narendra Modi governments have planned in tandem to set up 6,000 MW of nuclear power plant, spread over 777 hectares of prime agricultural land, against which the local villagers have led a consistent, vocal protest.”

By Nachiketa Desai* Big B of Bollywood beckons one and all to spend at least two days in Gujarat to feel the fragrance of Modiland. A 56-inch chest-thumping Narendra Modi woos the voters of Banaras saying, "Give me 60 months as Prime Minister, I will end all the woes of the weavers by setting up artificial silk making powerlooms just as in Surat," Arvind Kejriwal decides to spend not just two but four days in Gujarat to get a whiff of the fragrance AB is talking about in his multi-crore-rupee TV commercial, 'Khushboo Gujarat Ki'. He comes to Gujarat as a common man. There is no frill of flags, banners and loudspeaker. He travels in a car to North Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch, meeting village folks, men and women. He listens to them patiently, taking notes painstakingly. A posse of policemen, in uniform and without, trailed him, walkie-talkie in hand, reporting his minute-to-minute movement to the 'Saheb' in Gandhinagar. Kejriwal stops at a village, so...

By A Representative Strongly responding to Gujarat government’s decision not to accede to its demand for including two important occupational diseases in the list of those that can invite compensation under the employees’ compensation Act, Vadodara-based NGO People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC) has protested against the manner in which the decision was taken. 

By A Representative Following his Gujarat trip, and what would some term as his unprecedented attack on Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi during his four-day visit to the state, has Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal's “liking” for the BJP prime ministerial candidate come to a final end? As earlier reported (click HERE to read), Kejriwal was quite “impressed” by Modi ahead of the launch of India Against Corruption (IAC) in 2011, so much so that he, after great difficulty, managed an appointment with the Gujarat CM. It is quite another things that tables have turned now; he went to Modi residence straight dare the CM and ask difficult questions, without the need for an appointment, only to be stopped by cops 5 km away.

0-6 sex ratio By A Representative A top Varodara-based women’s group, Sahiyar Stree Sangathan, has alleged that the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who is doing Chai Pe Charcha on International Women’s Day, March 8, from Delhi, is “nothing but yet another match-fixing gimmick by his spin masters, where he will answer few ‘pre-selected’ questions from ‘pre-selected women’ to show that he is addressing the actual concerns of Indian women." In its statement, Sahiyar said, Modi should "stop comparing" Gujarat women's safety with UP and Delhi, as women in Gujarat moved around freely before he came to power.

Gross domestic product in billion US dollars Counterview Desk A top financial consulting firm, Unidow Finances Intelligence Services, has, in its recent analysis, ranked Gujarat No 9th in the percentage of growth in gross state domestic (GSDP). While Gujarat’s growth at current prices in 2012 – for which he made public data – was 15.33 per cent, the states which performed better that Gujarat were Maharashtra (16.86 per cent), Rajasthan (21.91 per cent), Kerala (16.97 per cent), Haryana (16.06 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (19.02 per cent), Bihar (24.40 per cent), Chhattisagarh (18.26 per cent), and Jammu & Kashmir (15.80 per cent).

By A Representative The labour and employment department, Government of Gujarat, in a letter to Vadodara-based NGO People’s Training and Research Centre (PTRC), has refused to give in the demand that musculoskeletal diseases (MSD) and the diseases caused due to exposure to polyacrylate should be considered occupational diseases. Gujarat’s premier occupation health NGO, PTRC had demanded that the schedule III of the Employees’ Compensation Act, should be amended to include these diseases in the list for which workers can demand compensation.

By A Representative  In a fresh attack on Gujarat’s powerful Adani group, which in one of its world’s most high-profile operations is contracted to mine a top coalfield in Australia, the international environment body Greenpeace has asked the Aussie government’s federal environment minister Greg Hunt to use his powers “to immediately order an investigation into the potential impacts of exploration activities by the Indian coal giant”.