Narendra Modi Invites IT Companies To Gujarat

Narendra Modi Invites IT Companies To Gujarat

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (Nov 18) invited Karnataka-based business houses, institutions and organizations to participate in the Vibrant Gujarat 2011.

Welcoming the gathering, Modi said, “I am happy to say that Gujarat is equally well in IT as it is doing well in other sectors of the economy.”

Counting on Gujarat’s achievement as a state, Modi said, “We are the first state to provide broad band connectivity in all schools, in all villages. We are making maximum use of video conferencing including for trial of prisoners.”

Vibrant Gujarat Summit is a biennial Global Investors' Summit held by the government of Gujarat.

According to officials, Karnataka, Goa, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh will take part in the Vibrant Gujarat Summit, to be held on Jan 12 and 13 at Gandhinagar. They will pitch for investments and also sign MoUs. Apart from this, around 70 countries are expected to take part in the event.

Narendra Modi pens book on climate change

Click to Expand & Play

New Delhi: As a state head, every Chief Minister ought to take steps to fight climate change. But Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi seems to have taken his responsibility a bit too seriously.

Going the Al-Gore way, Modi has written a book called 'Convenient Action: Gujarat's Response to Challenges of Climate Change'. To be released next week, the book runs into 250 pages. It is Modi's first book in English and has been published by Macmillan Publishers.

"Under the leadership of Narendra Modi, Gujarat has effectively handled a lot of issues and they have provided solutions. So this book is purely about climate change and how Gujarat has responded," says Sanjay Singh of Macmillan Publishers.

The book release function on December 21 will be presided over by former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.

Praising Modi's move, Dr RK Pachauri, the chief of Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said, "I am very happy that Narendra Modi has written this book. I haven't seen it but the very fact that he's focussed on this is worth praising." Pachuri will be the chief guest at this function.

With this book, 'green crusader' Modi has become the second politician in the world, after former US Vice-President Al Gore, to pen a book on climate change.

Read more at: http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/narendra-modi-pens-book-on-climate-change-73296?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ndtv%2FLsgd+%28NDTV+News+-+India%29&cp

Narendra Modi saddles up for key role at Centre

In the late 1960s, Narendra Modi used to help his brother run a tea-stall at the Gita Mandir bus stand in Ahmedabad, serving fresh buns and hot cups of tea. Among the regular clients were a bunch of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders who used to animatedly discuss political developments for hours at a stretch. Then in his late teens, the Sangh idealogy left a lasting impression on this youngster who was studying political science at that time. He quit the tea stall to become a swayamsevak and later a full-time pracharak. Forty years later, Modi is emerging as the most potent brew to come out of the Sangh’s stables, with even stalwarts of India Inc fuelling his political ambition to look beyond the boundaries of Gujarat. There was shock and surprise in January this year when Anil Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, impressed by the fact that the Vibrant Gujarat investment summit had clocked pledges worth $250 billion in these depressed economic conditions, publicly endorsed this “future Prime Minister”. Other second-rung Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, who are wary of the growing stature of the Gujarat chief minister, reacted with indignation. Modi was quick to declare that his only focus was to see L K Advani as the next prime minister. But then, many in the BJP see Modi’s emergence at the national level as the writing on the wall, given Advani’s advancing age and the absence of any other mass leader and master-strategist in their midst, especially after the demise of Pramod Mahajan. Advani is right in a way. The BJP’s PM-candidate is no longer seen as the face of Hindutva, a plank the BJP was forced to shed in order to gain acceptability among allies in an era of coalition politics. At the same time, the BJP is keen to use Modi’s exceptional oratorial skills, organisational capacity and image as Hindutva’s poster-boy in other states. That’s an image which came with his dubious handling of the Gujarat riots of 2002 and helped Modi to win two successive assembly elections in Gujarat — both with two-thirds majority. But he would like to be seen now as India Inc. sees him — as a man who has put the development of Gujarat on the fast track and has the potential of replicating it across the country. While he steps up the ante on Islamic terror, conscious efforts have been made to shed the Hindu ‘hriday samrat’ tag, with a demolition spree against illegal temples in Gandhinagar and the recent appointment of Shabbir Khandwawala as head of Gujarat police. It only helped his image make-over when Vishwa Hindu Parishad general secretary Ashok Singhal compared him with Mahmud Ghazni over the temple demolition move. Add to that the huge participation of Muslim countries at the last Vibrant Gujarat meet, which surprised much of the western world which still treats Modi as a pariah. The party has given Modi charge of the BJP’s election campaign in the entire western region, covering Maharashtra, Goa and the Union Territories. This means Modi will effectively have control of 78 constituencies, including seats which ally Shiv Sena will contest. Party sources say state units from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and others are also desperately seeking election rallies by Modi who is expected to be a bigger crowd-puller than Advani who, in a recent interview, admitted that Modi was perhaps more popular than him. “This is BJP’s time-tested formula of presenting a moderate and hardline face simultaneously. Modi is seeking the same role which Advani used to earlier play for Vajpayee as the star campaigner,” said a senior BJP leader. Govindacharya, the former BJP leader who was thrown out by the party some years back for calling Atal Bihari Vajpayee “the BJP’s secular mask”, says: “His (Narendra Modi’s) time will come. It is just a matter of time.” Well, everyone knows by now the role of the mask in Narendra Modi’s political career.

From R. Vasudevan - Reporting from New Delhi

From R. Vasudevan - Reporting from New Delhi

The name of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi evokes strong hostile reaction among the Muslim community as it holds him responsible for the riots that left many Muslims killed and not many have been brought to justice over the killings.

So for a Vice-Chancellor of Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband to speak in laudatory terms about Modi was unthinkable. It was no surprise that he became the target of attacks from students. Maulana Gulam Mohammad Vastanvi decided to resign but that has not changed his views.

He has said that people in Gujarat felt that development is happening in the state.
"The people of Gujarat agree on the fact that development is happening in the state and everyone whether a Hindu or a Muslim is there," he said. He, however, said that the Gujarat Chief Minister should not be given a clean chit.

Meanwhile, Deputy Vcechancellor of the seminary, Maulana Abdul Khalik Madrasi, told a news agency that a decision on the resignation issue would be taken on February 23 by its managing committee. "If his resignation is accepted, a new name for the post would be considered by the committee," he said. UP Samajwadi Party secretary Maviya Ali has demanded that the management committee should not accept Vastanvi's resignation. "It was most unfortunate that Vastanvi was not allowed to work in an institution which could have benefited from his experience," he said.

The decision by the newly-elected chief of Darul Uloom Deoband to resign followed protests by seminary students over his remarks on Modi. The decision has been termed as "unfortunate" by some clerics, who expected him to make positive changes in the 200-year-old institution.

Vastanvi, who hails from Surat in Gujarat and was elected VC on January 10, has been facing protests from students at the seminary after he had said that Muslims should forget the communal pogrom of 2002 and move on and that the community did not face discrimination in Modi's state.