Gujarat has been a true epitome of how the state government can ensure a balanced growth with equal and justified leverage to each sector from agriculture to industry. Each strata in each sector for every facility needs to be taken care of, if the governance can call itself “for the people and of the people”. So when SKOCH studied the various projects taken up by the Gujarat government, it was not surprising that a lot of projects in varied sectors had made a mark and had the potential to be replicated in other parts of the country.
The good, effective, transparent and progressive approach of the government in Gujarat helped the state rise to fifth position at the 2018 SKOCH State of Governance ranking. The state was at 13th position in 2017.
Here is a chart that shows how Gujarat has performed in the last three years in different sectors.
As part of the State of Governance study, SKOCH sent request letters and also contacted through different channels like telephones and emails to all ministries, departments, municipalities, district administration and other government bodies for sharing project details and their achievements. There was good response from across the government departments and organisations of Gujarat. 27 projects were shortlisted for assessment and evaluation. All of these projects were thoroughly studied and examined by domain experts.
Two of their projects were found to be exemplary, while eleven others definitely have the potential to perform and inspire in the coming years. Here is a detailed analysis of all these mentioned reports.
| Sector | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
| Municipal Governance | 3 | 5 | 4 |
| Food & Civil Supplies | 1 | – | – |
| Power & Energy | 1 | ||
| Police | 1 | – | – |
| Finance & Revenue | 5 | – | 4 |
| Women & Child Development | 2 | – | – |
| Transport | 5 | – | 6 |
| Education | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| ICT | 9 | – | 8 |
The Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation Ltd. (GSCSC), a Government-owned company, has emerged as an effective instrument and has played a vital role in the public distribution network in the state. The primary objective of the Corporation is procurement, storage and distribution of essential commodities for Fair Price Shopkeepers (FPSs) under PDS and other government welfare schemes like MidDay Meal and Integrated Child Development Services. Till 2016-17 transport, labour and doorstep delivery contract were awarded by e-tendering method and resulting contract was awarded to the same contractor for the logistics and labour works of GSCSC.
After detailed training and comprehensive platform to all the department officials as well as bidder community, reverse e-auction was introduced under which OTP-based login was provided to bidders and real time competitive bidding was made possible without disclosing bidders’ identity to each other as well as to the department.
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) City aspires to cater to India’s large financial services potential by offering global firms a world-class infrastructure and facilities. It aims to attract the top talent in the country by providing the finest quality of life.
It is estimated that GIFT would provide 500,000 direct and an equal number of indirect jobs which would require 5.76 million square meter of real estate office and residential space.
A joint venture between the Government of Gujarat and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS), GIFT aims to design, develop, finance, construct, operate and maintain an International Financial and Technology City in the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar region.
“Beti Bachao, beti padao” has been the nation’s slogan in the new India and the Kishori Jagrut Abhiyan that aims at empowering adolescent girls for a healthy tomorrow is the perfect example of how nationwide mission need these steps for nationwide success.
Adolescence is the second critical development stage of life cycle after childhood. Therefore, if investments are made in educating adolescents then disease burden which exhibit in the form of nutrition and reproductive health morbidities can be curbed and the health of adolescent girls for their own well-being as ‘Individuals’ can be improved. As adolescence is a transition period between childhood and adulthood, it provides an opportunity to educate and inform them to prevent nutrition related problems. In the past, adolescents have been reached through interventions like adolescent reproductive and sexual health clinics, schools and peer educators but approaches with community stakeholders like anganwadi worker were yet to be investigated. Therefore, an attempt was made by Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), Gujarat, to revitalise the existing programmatic framework of Rajiv Gandhi scheme for adolescent girls (Sabla) and Kishori Shakti Yojana, now called as Scheme for Adolescent Girls (SAG).
e-Megh is the Early Flood Warning System (EFWS) and is a platform that predicts flood-like situation and makes people as well as the government aware of the situation so that steps are taken to avoid disaster and save people and properties at the district level. It uses IoT sensors on the upstream location of the rivers and can give realtime information and alerts of a possible flood to the village/town downstream. For monitoring and control of the entire system, a central hub station is set up and the authorised user can also perform necessary action either to generate SMS or to blow the siren in a particular region.
Gyankunj is a school digitisation programme to enhance classroom interactivity and teaching-learning process with the help of technology tools like projector, interactive Infrared Camera, laptop, speaker, whiteboard and Wi-Fi Router. Initially, this programme is executed at Class 7 and Class 8 of 1,609 schools to accelerate the efforts of Gujarat Government in digital mode of education. It aims to make ease of understanding for each unit of curriculum in classroom itself by using technology as a medium.
PGVCL is the largest DISCOM of Gujarat, having largest coastal area and geographical area in Saurshtra and Kutch region. PGVCL has setup new benchmarks in the area of the power distribution sector by improving its performance consistently. The PGVCL, serves largest area in Gujarat State, compared to any other power distribution company of the state and with as unwavering focus on the agriculture sector.
PGVCL catered power supply with peak power demand of 5,784 MW without load shedding and 100 per cent power demand has been met. All urban areas-towns/cities, villages and industrial consumers are getting continuous 8-hour 3-phase power through separate agriculture dominant feeders, in rest hours the residential consumers of that area get single phase power supply through Special Design Transformers.
To avoid any complications or anomalies in the payment of scholarship disbursement, the state government has implemented this project for transferring scholarships online, directly in the beneficiary’s account. The aim of this project is to make the scholarship schemes available for all the deserving candidates by promoting an easy and even online process.
District Administration of Dahod in Gujarat has taken effective initiatives to ensure that less and less number of women die due to pregnancy related complications. The Health department focuses on all high risk antenatal mothers who require special medical intervention during the labor pain.
Local village level ASHAs have been roped in along with female health workers who identify high-risk pregnant women in villages and registered them. Following this, the Mamta Card is marked as “High-Risk Mother” so that she can be provided with immediate medical aid whenever and wherever she gets the labor pains.
Not only the government health staff but also private hospital staff can get immediate idea about the condition of the pregrant woman and the health staff can immediately refer to higher level health facility which is the District Hospital without wasting any time.
When e-GujCop system was put in place, the department used it to create the crime and criminal database and the usage of the database was limited. Sequentially, e-GujCop has now become more efficient and innovative which is useful in crime detection and crime prevention with the use of centralised database. After the launch of citizen portal, e-GujCop will promote and facilitate citizen centric policy. eGujCop has a mobile App called Pocket Cop which gives quick access to various search (vehicle, accused, missing person and employee search) available to cops at any place and any time in no time.
Citizen Portal: Citizens no longer need to visit police stations regarding FIR, e-Application, driver registration, domestic servant registration, NOC, PVC, senior citizen registration, report on missing person and so on. Citizens can directly avail the benefit of applying online request through citizen portal and their application will directly flow to the respective police station nearest them selected by them for further processing. Citizens can directly track the status of application through portal itself.
The city of Rajkot has emerged as one of Gujarat’s hi-tech city in technological development and innovation. One of the primary objectives of Rajkot under its smart city mission is to enhance the safety and security, improve livability of the city, improve efficiency of municipal services and promote a better quality of life for its residents. In order to achieve these objectives, Rajkot has developed a robust ICT infrastructure as part of Eye- Way project that supports digital applications and ensures seamless steady state operations.
As part of the project, public safety, 24*7 surveillance, emergency response mechanisms, public transportation management, free internet facilities to citizens through Wi-Fi hotspots, digital boards for disseminating smart information to the citizens, efficient public services through tracking and managing of solid waste, environmental pollution, drainage and water levels, BRTS and RMTS buses, LED light panels, geo-fencing of open plots, number of birth certificates and death certificates issued, number of marriage certificate issued, number of complaints registered, pending and resolved, number of shop license issued, total professional tax, property tax and water charges collected, total vehicle tax collected, booking of Auditorium and Community Hall and various other services is accomplished through Integrated Command and Control Center.
Food Research Lab by the Gujarat State Civil Supplies Corporation is a quality analysis after unsatisfactory quality feedback from midday meal scheme and integrated child development schemes. October 2017 onwards, the quality analysis started at the Forensic Science Laboratory managed by the Directorate of Forensic Science resulting in fair reporting, which ultimately improved quality of commodities supplied.
To overcome issues of standalone application, Uttar Gujarat Vij Company, Mehsana has taken initiative and developed a web based AT&C Software for computing Aggregate Technical & Commercial Loss for feeder, Subdivision, Circle & Company as a whole by single entry at sub-division level. The software takes the sold out units directly from the computerised billing to avoid any human errors. The sent out units & temporary & CPP Sold out units needs to be entered manually. For data entry, login and passwords have been given to subdivisions.
It has created centralised database to avoid duplication of feeders. There is minimum human intervention to reach at correct losses figure. There has been savings of about 50 man hours per month of engineers. Various customised reports will help in revenue enhance activities. The reports are available online for any offices for any given period. For better performance, the subdivision engineers can compare their reports with other subdivision reports.
Gujarat is one of the leading industrialised states in India. Gujarat’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) was about RS11.62 trillion (US$ 173.24 billion) during 2016-17. Average annual GSDP growth rate from 2011-12 to 2016-17 was about 13.55 per cent. As of August 2018, Gujarat had a total installed power generation capacity of 30,874.07megawatt (MW). Power generation in the state as of August 2018-19 reached 27,124.20 GWH.
Gujarat is considered the petroleum capital of India due to presence of large refining capacity set up by private and public sector companies. As of July 2018, Gujarat had four refineries with a combined capacity of 101.9 MMTPA.
As per state budget 2017-18, Government of Gujarat announced plans to invest US$ 4.25 billion in 2018- 19 under planned and non-planned expenditure for the education sector to improve education infrastructure.
Gujarat has achieved the distinction of being one of the most industrially developed states in the country. It accounts for five per cent of the total Indian population and contributes about a quarter of India’s goods exports. The state ranks first in terms of total area covered under SEZs in India. It is also a leading SEZ state with the highest geographical area of 29,423.9 hectares under SEZ development.
As of July 2018, Gujarat had 19 operational Special Economic Zones. Overall exports from Gujarat increased 22 per cent in 2017-18 to $66 billion.
According to the DIPP, FDI inflows to Gujarat totalled US$ 19.16 billion from April 2000 to June 2018.
The state of Gujarat has been riding high on its policies and efficient governance. The industrial face of the state has been on the forefront for a few years now but the state needs to focus on its health sector given the fact that the state’s immunisation rates are lower than the national average. Even though the per capita income of the state was 57 per cent higher than the national average in 2015-16 and had witnessed multifold increase, girl education, mortality rates of expecting mothers, and the fact that female literacy rate has been slower in Gujarat than the rest of the nation needs to be looked into. The state has set a benchmark with its policies, futuristic approach, allinclusive development but the governance has to maintain the momentum, fine tune the social picture and be the flagbearer of development that it strives to be.
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