$462 bn investment, Modi makes Gujarat shine

$462 bn investment, Modi makes Gujarat shine




Gandhinagar, Jan 14: If it is rare for 60 of India's top industrialists, representing companies that command the bulk of market capitalisation, to share the dais at a single event, it is even rarer when they commit investments worth hundreds of billions of dollars to one state -- in a matter of a few hours.

The two-day Vibrant Gujarat Summit that concluded with much fanfare here Thursday presented three striking facets that catapult both the state and its Chief Minister Narendra Modi to another league.

Also when states today are competing with one another to attract investment from sources both domestic and overseas, Gujarat was a refreshing change: The summit offered itself as a platform for other states as well, apart from two African countries, Rwanda and Mozambique, to woo investors.

"Gujarat is a land of entrepreneurs and enterprise. We are today the sharing platform of Vibrant Gujarat with other states for ensuring better knowledge and technology reaches all of India," said Modi.

"The 20th century was all about exploitation in Asia, in Africa. This century should be one of new understanding," he said at the Mahatma Mandir complex here, named after the Father of the Nation and an icon of Gujarati pride.

Little wonder Who's Who of India's corporate world praised Modi and his style of governance no end, and the body language of the chief minister, often called the state's chief executive, betrayed that he loved being eulogised.

"Modi is the biggest change agent in the state," said Anil Ambani, who was among the first speakers at the conclave and drew a grand applause from the 5,000-odd audience when he began his address with: "My respected elder brother Shri Mukesh Ambani".

Anil Ambani said: "Across the world, people today recognise Gujarat and Gujaratis as being synonymous with enterprise and industry. Gujarat is to India what India is - and will be - to the rest of the world."

Kumaramangalam Birta had similar words for the state and its chief minister.

"I believe, India needs many more states like Gujarat and to emulate and follow the example of Gujarat. India needs many more Narendra-bhais to take into league of superpowers that we desire to be in around the globe," Birla said.

"In the sphere of development, the world is now looking to India and India now looks to Gujarat," said Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive of India's largest private lender the ICICI Bank.

A very significant statement also came from a representative of the US -- a country that had denied visa to Modi in 2005, in the wake of the massacre of minorities that followed a train burning incident in the state in 2002.

"Gujarat is a shining beacon of prosperity, opportunity and progress. I hope the United State will be a partner country in 2013 like Japan and Canada are at this conclave," said Ron Summers, president of the US-India Business Council.

Among the other corporate heads who shared the dais with the chief minister were Ratan Tata, Gautam Adani, A.M. Naik, Adi Godrej, Anand Mahindra, G.M. Rao, Ajit Gulabchand, Karsanbhai Patel, Shashi Ruia and B.K. Goenka.

For the people of the state - among India's most-developed ones occupying 196,000 sq km with a population of 50.7 million people and a literacy rate of 79.8 percent - there were some tangible results as well, at least on paper.

As the conclave ended -- with the chief minister making it a point to pose for photos with every investor - the state had attracted commitments worth a mind-boggling $462 billion through 7,936 pacts with a potential for 5.2 million jobs.

This is higher than India's foreign exchange reserves estimated at around $300 billion. How many of these pacts translate into actual projects is a matter of conjecture, but the state continues to draw awe and admiration.

Modi launches veiled attack on Rahul over WikiLeaks

Dec 18: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today alleged that inputs provided by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that "radicalised Hindu groups" could pose a bigger threat than outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba were responsible for the "pro-Pakistan policies" of the US.

"Now it is clear who was prompting USA to speak in favour of Pakistan," Modi said, reacting to US diplomatic cables released by whistle-blower website WikiLeaks yesterday which carried Rahul's remarks about radicalised Hindu groups.

"The whole world was convinced that Pakistan promotes terrorism. They train terrorists and terrorism is the biggest export industry for it," he said on the sidelines of a function here.

Modi said he used to wonder why Americans supported Pakistan all through despite the widely acknowledged fact.

"After Wikileaks' release, it is known who was guiding USA and providing information about Pakistan, based on which America made an opinion about the country...this is the biggest loss for the country," Modi said without naming Rahul.

Asked if he was pointing an accusing finger at the Congress General Secretary, Modi refused to comment.

A conversation between Rahul and US envoy Timothy Roemer was released by WikiLeaks yesterday in which he had said that radicalised Hindu groups pose a bigger threat than outfits like LeT.

Population control in Gujarat

Narendra Modi, the architect of a pogrom in which the Vishwa Hindu Parishad mobs killed around two thousand Muslim Indians in 2002, onec made a controversial statement saying that Muslims reproduce so as to turn five of them into twenty five, thus increasing their population. This is conventional wisdom an old cliche of the Hindu right that tries to scare you into believeing that Muslims are going to outnumber Hindus by the time an Indian lands on the moon. Modi later claimed, with intellectual honesty typical of the Hindu right, that he was quoted out of context, that he was merely talking of population control, with no reference to any community in particular. What those of us outside Gujarat didn’t get to know is that he backed up his claim with a ‘massive’ population control programme.

This is said to be Modi’s larger agenda of ‘development’ and ‘progress’ for the Gaurav of Five Crore Gujratis as a strategy to deflect attention from the pogrom and demands for justice, and to keep his voters happy who happily voted him with a huge majority as a reward for the pogrom. But the development strategy does is part of the communal agenda (A state run on the Hindutva agenda has higher GDP…’). In fact, the pogrom continues in ways we don’t usually get to hear about.

If you live in Gujarat, you can obtain a family planning kit from the ration shop free of cost. Amongst other things, it would have Narendra Modi’s photo on the condom packet. They call it “Modi condom” there. Avinash Kumar has sent me the first photograph above. How I’m dying to get a kit, but Avinash says it’s too heavy to be couriered from Ahemdabad to Delhi.

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Narendra Modi – Chief Minister Office (CMO’s) system is ISO certified too.

The success of SWAGAT is inherently linked to the internal seamless functioning of the chief minister’s office. It is perhaps not so surprising then that in January 2009, the Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi’s, Office was the first in the country to acquire the ISO 9001: 2000 certificate for its processes.

But the notable aspect here is that the certificate was not attained as a piece of paper to flaunt, but the processes in the CMO have actually undergone a distinct change. Officials in the CMO claim six main sections of the CMO have undergone remarkable reforms – the secretariat functions; public relations office; general administration of the CMO like human resource management, training of CMO’s 60 employees etc; Jan Sampark – the CM’s points of contact with general public – and last but not least, the usage of information technology (IT) for all internal processes.

The Gujarat CMO was the first in the country to acquire the ISO 9001: 2000 certificate for its processes

"A gap analysis was conducted before applying for the certification and according to the ISO standards processes were reworked. Majority of CMO is online. 80% of CMO is paperless," says a senior officer on special duty perched behind a compact laptop on a spotless desk.

As for IT, an internal system for the CMO called IWDMS (integrated workflow and document management system) is being used since the last five years.

67 new processes have been developed. A lot of impetus is being put on recording every interaction of the CM with visitors, state bureaucrats, ministerial cabinet, politically and even with general public at mass gatherings. A new application called ‘ideas to execution’ has been developed where the status progression of every idea and activity can be seen.

"Any communication with the CM is online. Anyone wants to seek his appointment; any application etc is all done online. CM receives over 500 mails everyday, but after screening and filtering, synopsis of around 150-200 mails is sent to him everyday. He comments and reverts back on every mail daily. He forwards it to respective departments and follows up on a monthly basis. Every mail he receives is archived and docketed properly,’ the official says.

Narendra Modi's long haul

Narendra Modi's long haul As Shankarsinh Vaghela counters Narendra Modi's communal campaign with his own brand of caste mobilisation, the election campaign in Gujarat starts on a dirty note. DIONNE BUNSHA in Ahmedabad OLD-FASHIONED caste seems to be making a comeback against new-fangled Hindutva on Gujarat's retrograde political stage. By appealing along caste lines, newly-appointed Congress(I) president Shankarsinh Vaghela has called the wily Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Minister Narendra Modi's bluff. Even in communally polarised Gujarat, caste ties seem to be stronger than communal biases, judging by the response to Vaghela's rallies in the past month. Gujarat Congress(I) president Shankarsinh Vaghela on his way to the Bhattiji Maharaj temple at Phagvel on September 2. Vaghela's aggressive caste mobilisation scared the BJP. It was forced to postpone its much-touted Gujarat Gaurav Yatra once again. The threat of a violent face-off with Vaghela's supporters in Phagvel village made Modi run for cover. The BJP was asking for trouble when it decided to flag off its Gujarat Gaurav Yatra from the Bhattiji Maharaj temple in Phagvel village on September 3. Phagvel lies in Vaghela's Lok Sabha constituency in Kheda district. Moreover, the village is dominated by the aggressive Kshatriya community, which forms the backbone of Vaghela's mass base. By challenging Vaghela on his own turf, the BJP got more than it bargained for. Vaghela used Kshatriya caste loyalties in Phagvel to sabotage the BJP yatra. His supporters, organised under the banner of the Bhattiji Sena, invited him for a parallel religious meeting in the temple on the same day as the Gaurav Yatra was planned. Kshatriyas threatened that they would not allow the BJP elements to enter the temple. Platoons of the police were posted on the roads leading up to the village. Trouble seemed inevitable. Rather than face a hostile crowd, Modi preferred to cancel the event. Vaghela's mission to railroad the yatra had succeeded. This was just the start of a dirty election campaign in Gujarat. The BJP is aggressively playing on communal sentiments. But Vaghela, a former BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader, is out to beat Modi at his own game. While his strongest appeal is to caste ties, he is not allowing the BJP to monopolise Hindu rhetoric either. His mass base is the strongest among Kshatriyas, a community in the OBC (Other Backward Classes) category. Kshatriyas form around 20 per cent of the State's population. Although Modi is from the Ghachi community, also an OBC, he does not have a mass following amongst OBCs. Vaghela is also playing on the traditional rivalry between Kshatriyas and Patels, the dominant castes in Gujarat. Patels, who support the BJP, form 20 per cent of Gujarat's population. Most Patels are loyal to former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who is currently at loggerheads with Modi and reluctant to campaign with him. Vaghela is capitalising on this discord. "Kshatriyas are actually a political caste," says Achyut Yagnik, a social activist. "Rajputs (who comprise 5 per cent of the population) aligned themselves with the Kolis (an OBC which forms around 20 per cent) in order to counter the rise of Patels. They formed the Kshatriya Mahasabha in 1942. This led to the spread of Kshatriya consciousness." When Vaghela was with the BJP, he mobilised Kshatriya support for the party. Now he is reclaiming their loyalty for the Congress(I). This time, too, the Congress(I) is trying to use its KHAM formula (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim). This strategy proved very successful for the Congress(I) during the 1980 and 1985 elections. Since then, the BJP has managed to gain ground in Adivasi areas and amongst urban Dalits. Together, KHAM communities form a large chunk of the population. Muslims constitute around 9 per cent, Adivasis 15 per cent and Dalits 7 per cent. Vaghela is also challenging the BJP at its own game by playing the Hindu card. He has garnered the support of religious leaders like the Jain muni Acharya Mahapragya who wrote to the Chief Minister asking him to call off his Gaurav Yatra to prevent further violence in the State. When the RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya recently praised Vaghela for remaining a 'patriot' and a 'swayamsevak' and for making 'shrewd moves', it came as a slap in the face for the BJP. Moreover, the Panchajanya article also praised Modi's main rivals within the BJP - former Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and former Minister Haren Pandya. Vaghela is also using the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's traditional anti-cow slaughter slogans in his rallies. He is determined not to let Hindutva become the BJP's trademark. In his war against the BJP, Vaghela is managing to stonewall Modi at every step. His tactics are as aggressive as those of the BJP, and his rhetoric as caustic. "Do they take pride in not being able to save the Ram sevaks at Godhra when they took votes in the name of Ram?" asked Vaghela at the meeting in Paghvel. That was a sarcastic reference to the BJP's attempts to highlight the Godhra incident during its election campaign. The BJP has been on an advertising spree over the past weeks. Besides touting Modi as the best Chief Minister in the country, it is stoking Hindu insecurities. Across Ahmedabad the BJP has put up banners displaying a photograph of the Sabarmati Express burning, with the slogan: "Who is for us?" The 'Gujarat Gaurav Samiti' published advertisements that said: "Who is the Election Commission for? The minority. Who is the National Human Rights Commission for? The minority. Who is the Minorities Commission for? The minority. Who is for us?" The BJP has also been using festivals to flex its Hindutva muscle. It was the Jagannath Rath Yatra in July. The Shobha Yatra was taken out on Janmashtami day, August 31. After that came the Ganesh festival. The Shobha Yatra, organised mainly by Sangh Parivar members in Rajkot, Modi's constituency, had the "Fight against Terrorism" as its theme. Several floats and exhibits had replicas of the Sabarmati Express burning. But there was no mention of those among the Sangh Parivar who orchestrated the killing of more than 1,000 persons after the Godhra incident. Hindutva leaders now seem to be facing the backlash for their state-supported carnage. The Delhi police claim to have uncovered a plot to assassinate Modi and VHP president Praveen Togadia. On September 29, three youths, reportedly from the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Toiba, were arrested in Delhi. Later, two persons were nabbed in Ahmedabad. The BJP has suffered setbacks on several other fronts. The Supreme Court dashed Modi's hopes for early elections. The court said that no elections would be possible until October 2 (see separate story). It would take until then for the Supreme Court to decide on the government's appeal against the Election Commission's order on elections in Gujarat. The BJP is worried that as the communal fever dies down, it will lose votes. These fears have been corroborated by a recent survey conducted for the BJP by a Delhi-based market research company. It found that Modi's popularity has slipped since a similar poll was carried out in April. The Congress(I) is gaining ground, according to the survey. While in April the poll predicted that the BJP would win 118 of the 182 Assembly seats, the number slid to 96 in August. Contrary to the current political discourse, the main issues for the voters were employment, inflation and basic amenities, rather than Hindutva. But the Sangh Parivar remains unrepentant. VHP international working president Ashok Singhal described Gujarat as a "successful experiment" and warned that it would be repeated all over India. At a recent meeting in Amritsar, Singhal jubilantly described how entire villages had been "emptied of Islam", and how whole communities of Muslims ran to refugee camps. This was a victory for Hindu society, he said, a first for the religion. "People say I praise Gujarat. Yes I do," Singhal said. Yet, the communal campaign has not managed to deflect attention from the BJP's governance failures. Even in Phagvel, village residents spoke of the BJP government's neglect. "The Gujarat Gaurav Yatra isn't a matter of pride. In the last five years, the BJP hasn't done anything that it should be proud of. They haven't ever come here. Our panchayat hasn't got any development funds," said Rathod Dayabhai Abheshi, the Congress(I) sarpanch of Phagvel. Overnight, Abheshi became the most famous sarpanch in Gujarat as the national media hovered around Phagvel. Prominent politicians, including Modi, called on him, in an effort to win him over. With Gujarat's economy on the downslide, basic survival issues are still the most important for voters. The entire State is classified as 'water-scarce'. The recent drought has worsened the situation. But the government has not yet started relief. Unemployment and insecure employment has become widespread as small-scale industries face financial ruin. Hikes in electricity rates have deepened the agricultural crisis. For the first time in Gujarat, around 25 farmers committed suicide in the last year in Sanand, Ahmedabad (rural) district alone (The Indian Express, August 14, 2002). In Ahmedabad, at least 10 suicides have been reported amongst families ruined after the carnage. "Modi is totally ignoring people's basic problems. Anyone listening to him would think that Gujaratis have nothing to do but attend yatras and religious festivals," remarks Martin Macwan, a Dalit activist. The BJP's selective amnesia applies also to riot victims. It has chosen to overlook the misery of the 1.5 lakh people who were displaced by the riots. After closing several relief camps and forcing people to leave, the government has doled out pathetic sums as compensation to rebuild homes. Some people are still rebuilding their houses with the help of charitable agencies. Others still have not been able to return to their homes or their jobs. In Ahmedabad alone, there are around 10,000 people still in relief camps, estimates Fr. Victor Moses of Citizen's Initiative, a group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in the camps. There are hundreds of others in rural camps in Sabarkantha and Dahod districts that are shut officially but from where refugees have not left. "Refugees still feel insecure and uncertain. At a time when efforts should be made to heal the wounds, the elections are bringing out all the hate and mud-slinging," says Fr. Moses. In the political race for the Hindu heart, Gujarat's real problems have been kept on the back burner. Moreover, Vaghela's divisive caste politics is likely to make the dominant castes even more empowered and aggressive. With such strong posturing going on, it is unclear how both the parties will get to mobilise the poorest sections of Gujarat's society, who also constitute a large vote bank. These parties are likely to face the brunt of the social discord that such politics is bound to generate. If only politicians would wake up sleepy towns like Phagvel for more constructive purposes, rather than for pujas and brawls!

Indian Celebrities on twitter – Biggest verified list

Everyone always wanted to talk or contact to his/her favorite celebrity. I also googled so many times for my favorite’s contact and email addresses but most of the time I got false contact and the email listed on their official site… I never got one back .

Twitter the micro blogging site made it easy to contact them ( they have to be there on twitter ), don’t worry most of them are there… but be cautious there are fake also. You just need to follow them and you will know what they are doing or what they are telling… as soon as they tweet about it.

Why India needs Narendra Modi?

In this blog I am writing first post on Politics. However it is not related to this blog theme, but as I am Indian I would like to share my readings on one of the prominent leader in India.

I am watching this congress government for the past 6 years, one thing I have noticed is Rich people getting richer and poor always poor. Also laws are misused in many places. This is the time we have to think about India’s future and encourage farmers and increase the productivity.

I read one nice article about Narendra Modi, who done a great job in Gujarat. He will be the good candidate for the next PM post. This article written by Suhel Seth in finanacial express

: Let me begin with a set of disclosures: I have perhaps written more articles against Modi and his handling of the post-Godhra scenario than most people have; I have called him a modern-day Hitler and have always said that Godhra shall remain an enduring blemish not just on him but on India’s political class. I still believe that what happened in Gujarat during the Godhra riots is something we as a nation will pay a heavy price for. But the fact is that time has moved on. As has Narendra Modi. He is not the only politician in India who has been accused of communalism. It is strange that the whole country venerates the Congress Party as the secular messiah but it was that party that presided over the riots in 1984 in which over 3,500 Sikhs died: thrice the number killed in Gujarat.

The fact of the matter is that there is no better performer than Narendra Modi in India’s political structure. Three weeks ago, I had gone to Ahmedabad to address the YPO and I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up with Modi. I called him the evening before and I was given an appointment for the very day I was getting into Ahmedabad. And it was not some official meeting but instead one at his house. As frugal as the man Modi is.

And this is something that the Gandhis and Mayawatis need to learn from Modi. There were no fawning staff members; no secretaries running around; no hangers on…just the two of us with one servant who was there serving tea. And what was most impressive was the passion which Modi exuded. The passion for development; the passion for an invigorated Gujarat; the passion for the uplifting the living standards of the people in his state and the joy with which he recounted simple yet memorable data-points. For instance, almost all of the milk consumed in Singapore is supplied by Gujarat; or for that matter all the tomatoes that are eaten in Afghanistan are produced in Gujarat or the potatoes that Canadians gorge on are all farmed in Gujarat. But it was industry that was equally close to

his heart.

It was almost like a child, that he rushed and got a coffee table book on GIFT: the proposed Gujarat Industrial City that will come up on the banks of the Sabarmarti: something that will put the Dubais and the Hong Kongs of this world to shame. And while on the Sabarmati, it is Modi who has created the inter-linking of rivers so that now the Sabarmati is no longer dry.

He then spoke about how he was very keen that Ratan Tata sets up the Nano plant in Gujarat: he told me how he had related the story of the Parsi Navsari priests to Ratan and how touched Ratan was: the story is, when the Navsari priests, (the first Parsis) landed in Gujarat, the ruler of Gujarat sent them a glass of milk, full to the brim and said, there was no place for them: the priests added some sugar to the milk and sent it back saying that they would integrate beautifully with the locals and would only add value to the state.

Narendra Modi is clearly a man in a hurry and he has every reason to be. There is no question in any one’s mind that he is the trump card for the BJP after Advani and Modi realises that. People like Rajnath Singh are simply weak irritants I would imagine. He also believes that the country has no apolitical strategy to counter terrorism and in fact he told me how he had alerted the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the NSA about the impending bomb blasts in Delhi and they did not take him seriously. And then the September 13 blasts happened! It was this resolve of Modi’s that I found very admirable. There is a clear intolerance of terrorism and terrorists which is evident in the way the man functions; now there are many cynics who call it minority-bashing but the truth of the matter is that Modi genuinely means business as far as law and order is concerned.

I left Modi’s house deeply impressed with the man as Chief Minister: he was clearly passionate and what’s more deeply committed. When I sat in the car, I asked my driver what he thought of Modi and his simple reply was Modi is God. Before him, there was nothing. No roads, no power, no infrastructure. Today, Gujarat is a power surplus state. Today, Gujarat attracts more industry than all the states put together. Today, Gujarat is the preferred investment destination for almost every multi-national and what’s more, there is an integrity that is missing in other states.

After I finished talking to the YPO (Young President’s Organisation) members, I asked some of them very casually, what they thought of Modi. Strangely, this was one area there was no class differential on. They too said he was God.

But what they also added very quickly was if India has just five Narendra Modis, we would be a great country. I don’t know if this was typical Gujarati exaggeration or a reflection of the kind of leadership India now needs! There is however, no question in my mind, that his flaws apart, Narendra Modi today, is truly a transformational leader! And we need many more like him