"The textile industry is dying and requires increased help from banks," Ram Krishna Mundra of Mahendra Tora Pvt Ltd said on November 26. Power loom owners and weavers have been hit hard during the recent times. "The textile industry should be given an electricity duty subsidy to overcome the current crisis," he demanded. Vimal Ambani, president-Gujarat chapter, CII, said a unified national tax structure was needed to strengthen the industry.
The innovation called 'blind man's stick' aspires to make life easy for the visually challenged by alerting them if they are stepping on water or into a pit through a multi-lingual voice recorded system.
Having already witnessed a job cut of around seven lakhs so far in the year, the textile industry may see a further reduction in manpower by five lakhs, given in a decline in business by 1.5 per cent.
Farmers say they are paid lesser by Rs 110 per sq meter for road project. A day before the announcement of Nano project at Northcote farm in Chharodi village in Gujarat, the Ahmedabad district collector along with revenue department officials had assured the farmers that they would be duly compensated for the amount of land they given for four lane road project.
The farmers of Khoda and Bol village on Tuesday claimed that a large portion of the proposed 1100 acre for Nano is their ancestral property and the land was given for the cattle farm which falls under Anand Agriculture University. The state government has given half of the 2200 acres of land to the Tatas.
While the exact investment for the project, which is likely to come up in Jamnagar is not known, senior government officials say the company is looking to ink an agreement during the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit, to be held in January next year.
The new industrial policy, which may come into effect from October this year, may not offer large incentives. The Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is learnt to have told officials at the last review meeting that the new industrial policy will not offer large incentives.
"A small hardware placed at the location will ensure that 100 metres around the area becomes the bluetooth hotspot, where people get an alert about promotional offers in the surrounding retail environment. The applications could be audio or video images, which can be downloaded and shown at the counter to avail of the discounts claimed by the message," says Gautam Jayaraman, head of sales at Value First.
ONGC currently supplies gas directly in isolated pockets of India, mainly in Gujarat and Assam, which contributes around Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) to ONGC's total marketing revenues. In May 1992, gas pipelines and marketing functions related to natural gas were transferred by ONGC to GAIL. However, there are certain isolated pockets where ONGC continues to be the marketing agency.
ADAG slots Rs 1,200 cr for wind power plants
Gujarat State Co-operative Bank, the apex co-op bank in Gujarat, has already hiked salaries by 16 per cent, said Shailesh Shah, General Secreatary, Gujarat State Co-operative Banks' Employees' Federation. The bank has a workforce of 237 employees. Ahmedabad Co-operative Bank too has given Rs 1600 hike to their employees.
The chain 'NRI Panipuri' will have around 500 small franchisee outlets in the city over the next one year. After Ahmedabad, the group will enter centres like Vadodara, Rajkot, Mehsana and Bhavnagar.
Aditya Aromedic and Bio Energy Pvt Ltd has recently started commercial production of bio-diesel from Jatropha. The good news is that bio-diesel marketed by the company is cheaper than the fossil diesel sold by oil marketing companies in the country.
Nothing seems to dampen the spirit of Gujarat's textile industry when it comes to investments. Inspite of the issues arising due to rising input costs, the state government is expecting to witness MoUs worth Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in textile sector at the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investor's Summit 2009. During the summit, the state government will be luring several textile machinery manufacturers from overseas to set up base in the state.
The floor seems to be divided between realtors and Gujarat urban development authorities on the implentation of the New Integrated Township Policy. Township projects worth over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in and around Ahmedabad have been left in a lurch due to this, according the real estate developers. Many developers who have already earmarked land for the townships feel that the policy is not yet implemented
The government appears to have hit upon a novel faculty-sharing solution to tackle the shortage of quality faculty at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology. The shortage will accentuate now that eight new IITs have been announced.
Maruti Suzuki's next offering, the A-Star, a premium hatchback car, will be the first vehicle to be exported from the company's car terminal at Mundra Port, which is expected to be operational by December 2008. A joint venture between Maruti Suzuki and Mundra Port and Special Economic Zone (MPSEZ), the terminal is being set up with an investment of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion).
At IIM-Indore, the highest domestic salary offer recorded this year was Rs 26 lakh compared with Rs 18 lakh last year an increase of Rs 44 per cent. At IIFT-Delhi, the highest domestic offer was Rs 25 lakh over Rs 19.20 lakh in 2007 an increase of 30 per cent. At IIM-Bangalore, for instance, consulting firms accounted for 37 per cent of total placements. At IIM -Ahmedabad, a total of 103 offers were made during lateral placements.
The Indian economic growth story is being reflected on B-school campuses too.
"The last few years have seen under-investment in agriculture, leading to a shortage of foodgrains and high prices. The cost of wheat has jumped from $130 to $500 per tonne in a short time. Everyone wants to invest in IT and computers but not in agriculture," said Vasant Gandhi, professor at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, speaking during the inaugural session of 'Amaethon', the agri-business business school meet.