HYDERABAD, India, 9 January 2006 — Maharashtra and Gujarat have been vying for investments for the last two decades or more but their intense rivalry came out into the open on day two of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Maharashtra counterpart Vilas Rao Deshmukh boasted about their respective states and had an indirect dig at each other.
It all started when Modi, in his impressive Hindi speech, recounted the rapid strides made in Gujarat in various sectors and boasted that his state had surpassed and left behind all other states and was poised to compete with countries such as China, Japan and Germany in economic growth. Gujarat recorded the highest GDP growth of 15.6 percent among all states against India’s 7 percent.
The state’s industrial prowess could be gauged from the fact that as many as 11 Special Economic Zones had been approved.
Describing Maharashtra as the big brother, Modi said that Gujarat was formed in 1960 with bifurcation of old Bombay state. But the state had overtaken Maharashtra in various fields. “In this company of chief ministers, I am the junior most. My experience is very limited,” he quipped and pointed out that Gujarat achieved a lot during his brief tenure.
When his turn came to speak at the interactive session attended by Modi and four other chief ministers, Deshmukh countered his Gujarat counterpart point-by-point. Touting Maharashtra as the gateway of opportunities as the first destination of NRIs, he said the state always led the industrial growth in the country.
Maharashtra remained the preferred investment destination for both domestic and foreign investors and various all-India surveys by independent agencies had adjudged Maharashtra as the best state for investment.
“Maharashtra is becoming the economic powerhouse within the country. We already have got approvals for 11 SEZs in the state. We are developing more multiproduct and product specific SEZs,” Deshmukh said and pointed out that two more international airports were coming up at Navi Mumbai and an international cargo and passenger hub was coming up at Nagpur.
To another claim made by Modi, Deshmukh said that while evaluating the opportunities in the states, an investor must see whether they have fiscal discipline, good infrastructure and have enacted labor reforms.
“Maharashtra stands far ahead in these areas. Much more is to be done in labor reforms. I have been saying, let us have consensus on labor reforms. It is difficult for individual states to take decisions,” he said.
“When Modi is there, anything is possible. That cannot be true with everyone else (other CMs). I congratulate Modi because wherever good work is there, it has to be appreciated but what we can do collectively with national consensus, we can do better,” Deshmukh told his rival.
Kashmir Witnesses Unprecedented Tourist Flow in 2005, Says Azad
Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed unprecedented tourist traffic in 2005, state Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said yesterday.
Addressing an interactive session here, Azad said a million tourists, including 400,000 pilgrim tourists to Amarnath, visited Kashmir last year. Further, 6.3 million pilgrim tourists visited a shrine in Jammu. More than 19,000 foreign tourists visited Kashmir last year. Another 22,000 foreign tourists visited Ladakh last year.
Referring to the tremendous opportunities for investment in tourism sector in J&K, the chief minister said that Kashmir was also emerging as a hub of human resource development in tourism sector. Three major national institutions are being upgraded at an investment of Rs. 130 million. These institutions are recognized as centers of excellence for providing training in hotel management, skiing and mountaineering.
Recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a package of Rs.. 2.4 billion as financial assistance to 12 development authorities that have been set up by the state government for the promotion of tourism.
