Excellent speech .....
Some key points which I liked most ..
Today is also the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, one of the greatest visionaries the world has ever produced. He envisioned a world which is driven by "spiritual humanism" that will enable everyone to have freedom, knowledge and happiness.
The 21st century is not only the century of India but also that of Asia. Therefore, we have to look at the role of Gujarat not only in the context of India but also of Asia. Whenever India led the world, the welfare of human beings was at the center. The cultural heritage of India has compassion, equity and love at its core. This is the land where Buddha and Mahavir walked. Whenever India suffered a setback, humanity did too.
The development process in the 20th century was based on exploitation. The model of development was exploitation of the weak by the strong, exploitation of the laborers of the poor countries; nations exploiting one another. The mindset was unlimited exploitation and use of natural resources, as if they would last forever. Therefore, in this century, it has become necessary to bring about a change in our thinking, in our institutions and mechanisms.
However, investment flow into the State is only a small part of the objective of this event. The greater objective is to energize global networking for knowledge and technology sharing; to learn the best practices and to encourage the people to think big and take up challenging projects.
We have not only registered overall double-digit GDP growth but our important sectors have also registered double-digit growth. Our Industry has grown at 13% in the last decade. Our agriculture has grown at 9.6% over last seven years. The per capita income of the people has grown at 13.8%. With these and several similar indicators, we are already regarded as the "Growth Engine of India".
This is the reason that our contribution to industrial output is around 16%, consistently for a decade. This is the reason that we contribute 22% of India's exports. This is also the reason that we account for 30% of India's market capitalization. We are committed to not only retain this position but to further improve it.
I must also add here that the achievements of Gujarat are all-pervasive. They are not region specific, sector specific or community specific. Our people are not only beneficiaries but they are active partners in the process of development. The State Government is playing the role of a catalyst and facilitator. Gujarat has, in fact, emerged as a model of Good Governance not only in the country but in the entire world.
Now, we are increasingly becoming carbon conscious too. One of the biggest changes that we are bringing in is to ensure that whatever we do, we do in a manner that the environmental impacts are minimum. I know for sure that managing climate change is very critical to human existence. To tackle it, Gujarat was the first Country or State in Asia to establish a separate Department of Climate Change.
