Gujarat aims to raise its share to more than 10% in India's economy in coming years: CM

Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Saturday said his state had set a target to increase its share in India's economy to more than 10 per cent in the coming years as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call make the country's economy a $ five trillion one.

In the meeting of the eighth Governing Council of NITI Aayog held in New Delhi, Patel enumerated achievements of Gujarat and said the state has increased its budget to Rs 3 lakh crore for the current financial year.

With 1.5 per cent fiscal deficit, Gujarat follows the yardstick of the 13th Financial Commission, he added. He said Gujarat has kept its focus on enhancing infrastructure facilities and social security to the poor and needy sections, improving human resource development, world-class infrastructure development, investment promotion, and maximising use of green technology.

Also Read | Gujarat ATS arrests four Bangladeshi nationals for running Al-Qaeda module

"Gujarat has always given priority to the energy sector, whether it is in the form of traditional energy production or renewable energy sector. The state has set up 15 per cent of the country's total installed renewable energy capacity of 20 GW," he said.

Gujarat has paid attention to Prime Minister Modi's appeal to accelerate the use of green hydrogen in energy needs and has set a target of additional 100 GW of renewable energy production under the National Green Hydrogen Mission, he added.

Further briefing the NITI Aayog, Patel said Gujarat has become the first state in the country to integrate on the GatiShakti platform. Elaborating on this, the CM said previously it used to take months to plan any development work, but now the entire planning is done in a few weeks, resulting in a rapid progress of these projects.

He said 5G services are being launched by telecom service providers across Gujarat by leveraging Bharat Net's assets through the Gatishakti platform. Giving details about infrastructure and investment, Patel said Gujarat, since the last two decades, had emerged as a favourite destination for investors in the country.

"The Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit that started two decades ago under the visionary leadership of then chief minister Modi has made the state an important investment destination. Gujarat has started preparing for the 10th Vibrant Summit to be held in January 2024," he said.

"Greenfield based economic cities like Gift City, Dholera and Dream City are being developed in Gujarat in accordance with the prime minister's concept of focusing more on the development of cities based on economic activities," he added.

The CM said about 12 lakh MSMEs are registered on the industry portal, and Rs 63,000 crores investment has come through these MSMEs and 75 lakh people have got employment. Gujarat has been making gender responsive budgets continuously for the past nine years, he said, adding that as a result of the campaign launched by the PM for girl child education, the dropout rate of girls in schools has come down from 18 per cent to just 2 per cent.

Patel said more than one-and-half crore children of the state are being examined, diagnosed and treated free of cost under the school health programme.