Khul ja sim SIM, Modi woos Russians

Gandhinagar: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has invited the Russian telecom giant, SIS TEMA, to set up a Sim card and microchip manufacturing unit in Gujarat. Modi, who is currently in Russia on a three-day visit, invited the company on Monday after a tour of SIS TEMA's manufacturing unit in Moscow.

Quoting reports from Moscow, sources in Gandhinagar said that the chief minister had also observed SIS TEMA's disaster management technology that can be used by the coast guard. The sources added that SIS TEMA had responded positively to Modi's offer and had promised to send a delegation of company officials to Gujarat.

Earlier in the day, the CM addressed the 4th International Energy Week Conference that is being held in Moscow. In his speech, he highlighted the achievements of Gujarat in the petroleum and energy sector, and said that Gujarat had made considerable progress in creating an "integrated value-chain in the petroleum and energy sector".

Recalling that, in 1964-67, Russia had conducted extensive exploration for oil in the bay of Khambhat, Modi invited Russian oil and gas companies to invest in Gujarat once again. He told the delegates at the conference that, in 2001, Gujarat had evolved a strategy for exploration and research in hydrocarbons (gas, oil and petroleum).

As a result, the state had become the petro-capital of India within a decade, he said.
The sources in Gandhinagar said that Modi had state at the conference in Moscow that all major petroleum and gas companies had a presence in Gujarat today. He told the assembled delegates that the state had entered into tie-ups for technical collaboration with the world's best gas, petroleum and energy companies.

To become a major player in the oil and gas sector, Gujarat is now focussing on creating an integrated value-chain in the petroleum sector, the chief minister said. He added that, for this, the state was working to integrate exploration, production, transmission and distribution of petroleum and gas in the state.

Gujarat & Gujarati

This is an extract from an article in a newspaper 'The News International' as on 6th September 2008


........India's wealthiest man, Mukesh Ambani of Reliance, is Gujarati.

Forbes says he is the world's fifth richest man, worth $43 billion.

Azim Premji of Wipro, is Gujarati. He is the word's 21st richest man, worth $17 billion.

Ten of the 25 richest Indians are Gujarati. Some of the best business communities in India -- Parsis, Jains, Memons, Banias, Khojas and Bohras -- speak Gujarati.The two great leaders of the subcontinent, the Mahatma and the Quaid, were both Gujaratis from trading communities. One a Bania, the other a Khoja.Gujaratis number 55 million, five per cent of India's population living on six per cent of surface area, but hold 30 per cent of all Indian stock.



They account for 16 per cent of all Indian exports and 17 per cent of GDP.On August 8, the National Council of Applied Economic Research published a report.

The richest city in India is now Surat, ahead of Bangalore and Madras, with an average annual household income of Rs0.45 million (over $11,000).

80 per cent of all diamonds sold anywhere in the world are polished in Surat's 10,000 diamond units The only non-Jews in the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem diamond bourse are Gujjus. Between 2004-5 and 2007-8 Surat's middle class doubled in size and its poor reduced by a third. The fifth richest city in India is now Ahmedabad, miles ahead of Calcutta.

The Communists rule Bengal and Kerala. They are splendid at protecting Muslims but rubbish at running the economy. They hold million-man rallies with the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-i-Islam (yes, we have one too) demanding that America get out of Iraq, but cannot stop Tata from being chased out of Bengal. The percentage of man-days lost in Gujarat due to labor unrest is 0.42 per cent, the lowest in India. Of Gujarat's 18,048 villages, 17,940 have electricity. Under Modi the face of industrial Gujarat is changing. The world's largest oil refinery is coming up in Jamnagar. Owned by Reliance, it already refines 660,000 barrels of oil a day and will double that this year. Thirty per cent of India's cotton is grown in Gujarat, 40 per cent of India's art-silk is manufactured in Surat, employing 0.7 million people. The world's third largest denim manufacturer is Ahmedabad's Arvind Mills.A KPMG report says 40 per cent of India's pharmacy industry is based in Gujarat with companies like Torrent, Zydus Cadila, Alembic, Dishman and Sun Pharma.The state's GDP has been growing at 12 per cent a year for the last 12 years, as fast as China's.

Gujarat will soon become hub of solar energy generation, says Modi

Chief Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that the state is all set to become a hub of solar energy generation, adding that Surat itself will produce half of the total power generated in Gujarat in the coming years.

He said this at the inauguration ceremony of Sugen Mega Power plant at Kamrej in Surat. This is India’s first and also the largest private sector gas-based power project. It will produce clean energy of 1100 MW.

Modi said: “Surat has all five — hydro, thermal, gas, nuclear and liquid-based — power plants, which is not found anywhere else in the country. In 2012, Surat will cross the present total power production in Gujarat.”

He announced to give power connection to all the tribal farmers — who had applied for the same for their agricultural fields — during the Swarnim Gujarat Celebrations next year. “Work for setting up of a substation for transmission of power is under progress,” he said.

Modi said the state will produce 3000 MW of solar energy in the coming years and a plant will be also set up in Vadodara, wherein foreign companies will have manufacturing units of gigantic transformers.

The Kamrej plant consists of three power blocks of 382.5 MW capacity each. Sources said the company had also signed a Joint Venture with the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) to construct and erect a 400 KV double circuit transmission line connecting Sugen to Ahmedabad and PGCIL transmission system at Dahej.

Sudhir Mehta, Chairman of the Torrent Group, said: “To meet the power demand in the country, we have set up the dream project. The power generated at Sugen will be distributed to Ahmedabad and Surat, and the surplus will be sold to other states.”

He added that the company has plans to increase the generation capacity in the coming years to 6000 MW. “The fourth unit will be added shortly,” he said.

Union Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was also present at the event. He said the Prime Minister is working on ways to increase the growth rate of the country “and the power generation sector can play an important role in it”. He added: “In the current Five Year Plan, we have set a target of 80,000 MW and still two and half years are left. We will achieve the target.”

State Energy and Petrochemicals Minister Saurabh Patel said that in the next three years, the state government will give 10 lakh gas connections through piped gas “so that women in the villages will not have to face any problem and will also be able to save money”.

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora, Gujarat Power Minister Bharatsinh Solanki, state ministers Narottam Patel, Saurabh Patel, Mangu Patel and Wolfgang Dehen, CEO of Energy, Siemens, Germany were present at the occassion.

Torrent to make Sugen world's biggest gas-fired power plant

Inaugurating the country's biggest gas-based power project of 1,147 mw capacity at Sugen near Surat on Wednesday, Torrent Power Ltd said it would scale up the generation capacity by adding another 3,400 MW in the next five years.

Once the expansion is completed, it could become the world's largest gas-based plant at 4,500 MW.

Torrent chairman Sudhir Mehta told newspersons after the inauguration that the company is in the process of acquiring another 300 acres of land close to its Sugen plant. This expansion is a part of TPL's ambitious plan to become a 10,000-MW power generation company.

He added that TPL will have a total gas-based generation capacity of approximately 6,000 MW and coal-based capacity of 3,500 MW.

Torrent currently distributes over 10 billion units of power annually to Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Surat – the industrial and commercial hubs of Gujarat.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi said on the occasion that the state government is investing Rs5,000 crore for upgrading its power distribution system. The state's minister for energy and petrochemicals, Saurabh Patel, urged union petroleum minister Murli Deora to allocate more gas from the Krishna-Godavari Basin to Gujarat-based small and medium enterprises.

In response, Deora, who was present along with union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and minister of state for power Bharatsinh Solanki, said the SMEs of Gujarat would get an improved gas supplies.

He said the gas allocation had several priorities, which included fertilisers and power generation. ''After providing gas to these key industries all the rest of the small industries would get the regular supply of gas,'' said Deora adding that with the existing 11 crore gas customers, the government had planning to include additional 5.5 crore new LPG (liquefied natural gas) connections by 2025. Considering this, he emphasised on the pipe-based gas supply to customers.

Reaffirming his keenness on solar power, Modi appealed to the centre for setting up a solar energy park on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border, one of the sunniest parts of the country. Modi suggested that the project would benefit the Border Security Force deployed on the border of two states.

"We want to transform the state of Gujarat into an integrated solar generation hub for the entire nation," he said.