Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas - Gujarat

So recently I came across an article by the noted economic blogger Soutik Biswas on Gujarat.

He stated that based on the 7 year period from 2004-05 thru 2011-12 Gujarat clocked an annual growth rate of 10.08 %( Gross State Domestic Product). If Gujarat were a country this would be one of the fastest growth rate in the world, undoubtedly faster than China but even faster than the new frontier nations like, Mongolia and Ghana. This even prompted The Economist magazine to call it India's Guangdong.

Hailing from the great state of Gujarat, I didn’t need any statistics to prove the growth of Gujarat, but numbers like this does help to prove your argument, if there were any. A lot has been said about the real reasons of the phenomenal growth of Gujarat. It’s entrepreneurial community, its educated population; its conservative values (believe it or not!), its ties to the successful business families. But the most important thing that helped Gujarat achieve this success is because of its government’s socio-economic policies that are both, business and aam aadmi friendly. Its clear vision, its acceptance to become a part of a much bigger & a better world, its philosophy of better economic life translates into a better social life, has earned the state a lot of kudos both nationally and internationally. And this is all because of one person, the person who hopefully, will be our next Prime Minister*, Mr. Narendra Modi- the no-nonsense economic reformer. This is no political propaganda and I have no allegiance to any political party. I believe in Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of electing the ‘person’ and not the ‘party’. And being a witness to the longest and the strongest socio-economic growth an Indian state would have ever witnessed, I wanted to write about it and the reason behind it. Even Time magazine put him on the cover recently, "Modi Means Business".

Some might question his policies during the troubled times of 2002 when Gujarat went through its worst social crisis, but his economic policies never left a shred of doubt. His vision of making Gujarat a model state was very clear. I don’t need to provide the list of things that Gujarat has achieved in its recent past, I am sure we all have witnessed it either personally or through media.

2002 has been a distant past. Gujarat has achieved a lot in this past decade in both economic front and social front. Socio-economic & educational level of Gujarati’s in both Muslims and Hindus are better than their counterparts in the rest of India. Not that everything is hunky dory, like any other state Gujarat has its issues with female foeticide and environment, but steps are being taken and it is moving in the right direction.

Jai Jai Garvi Gujarat!!

*I can’t wait to see how will the sitting US President entice Prime Minister Modi to come to US, given he was not granted visa after 2002.