Gujarati News: December 2006

NRIs get VIP treatment
Friday, December 15, 2006 | AY

Medical tourism forms a vital component of the ongoing ‘Tourism Year’, and as cash-rich Gujarati NRIs fly home for medical treatment, doctors and hospitals are wooing them with packages, including deluxe accommodation and even English-speaking cab drivers. Having caught global attention following her success with surrogate mothers, Anand-based infertility specialist Dr Nayna Patel ensures that her NRI patients are as comfortable as they can be. Right from tying up with leading chain hotels to do up their apartments, to hiring public relations officers to take the couple sight-seeing, everything is taken care of by her team. To ensure that its Destination Gujarat for NRIs and NRGs when it comes to medical tourism, the State Cabinet approved a new Gujarat Medical Tourism Policy. The aim of the policy is to provide health services of international standards and at reasonable costs to patients who fly down to State for treatment.

Vajubhai Vala in as new Gujarat FM
Friday, December 15, 2006 | AY

Vajubhai Vala, the ex-state president of BJP’s Gujarat unit, was sworn in as the state’s finance minister on Wednesday as part of the Gujarat government’s cabinet expansion. Vala is the only leader who has been included in today’s expansion. Vala replaced Saurabh Dalal on the post of state finance minister. Vajubhai Vala recently completed his term as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s state president. Vala, the MLA from Rajkot, will hold the minister’s portfolio for the seventh time. Vala is known as a down to earth leader and a Narendra Modi camp leader. He hails from Saurashtra region.

Gujarati producer forays into Hindi films
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 | AY

Gujarati film producer Suresh M Thakkar has forayed into Hindi film territory. After making three Gujarati films Sajan Haiye Sambhre, Gormano Var Kesariyo and co-producing Dikro Kahu Ke Dev, Thakkar has now completed shooting for his first Hindi film Kover Page, with an all new cast. The film has been written and directed by Dilip Gulati. Kover Page is a medium budget film, based on a murder mystery. It has elements of romance, suspense, thrills, glamour and comedy too. My lead pairs Delzzan Wadia and Liza Malik are new, but have done justice to their roles.

Gujarat celebrates perfect launch of Sunita
Tuesday, December 12, 2006 | AY

Sunita Williams, second Indian woman to go into space, has become a media celebrity in Gujarat as she belongs to Gujarat. While mentioning that Sunita was second Indian woman to go in space after Kalpana Chawla, newspapers have also pointed out that Kalpana’s shuttle met with accident soon after reaching into the space and so Sunita was the first to settle in the space.

ITC proposes to set up a 5-star hotel
Saturday, December 9, 2006 | AY

ITC Ltd will set up a five star hotel in Ahmedabad under the banner of ITC-Welcomgroup chain of hotels. The proposed deluxe hotel will have a capacity of 250 to 300 rooms and will cost ITC Rs 300 crore. The hotel will be located in the central area of the city. The project will begin in 2007 and construction will be completed by 2010. This will be the company’s fourth hotel in Gujarat and second in Ahmedabad as ITC Ltd already has a Welcomgroup hotel in Vadodara, hotel Fortune Landmark in Ahmedabad and Fortune Hotel Galaxy in Vapi under the banner of Fortune Park Hotels Ltd, which is a subsidiary of ITC Ltd.

Inflammable liquid used to set Sabarmati Exp afire
Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | AY

Forensic reports of samples taken from the burnt coach of the Sabarmati Express reveal that an inflammable liquid like petrol was used to burn the S-6 coach of the train, Government Counsel Sumit Shah told the Godhra Inquiry Commission. The intensity of the fire was so great that about 90 per cent of the coach was destroyed. All this indicate that an inflammable liquid like petrol was used. Stating that entire incident was "pre-planned" the counsel dismissed the findings of the U C Banerjee Committee (constituted by the Ministry of Railways) which stated that the fire on the train which killed 59 persons on February 27, 2002 was "accidental".

Surat airport to function from April
Monday, December 4, 2006 | AY

By April 2007, commercial flights can take off from the Surat airport. The fire station, parking area for visitors and the Air Traffic Control tower are nearing completion. The work on runway and night approach systems is yet to be finished, while the passenger terminal is partly completed. So far, the runway and the night approach system were said to be the reason behind the holdup. Work on passenger terminal was hindered for a short duration owing to some payment-related issues with contractor, but the problem has been sorted out.

19 MoUs signed for IT projects in Gujarat
Monday, December 4, 2006 | AY

Gujarat joined the mainstream of information technology development programmes with the signing of 19 Memoranda of Understanding (MoU). The MoUs, promising an investment of over Rs.11,000 croreand creation of more than 3.25 lakh jobs, were signed at the "Vibrant Gujarat IT Summit" held in the presence of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The MoUs signed with the State department of Science and Technology included the setting up of nine IT special economic zones. Fascel Limited signed an MoU for investing Rs.2,500 croreto expand cellular services and thus create over 18,000 new jobs.

Reproductive tourism becoming a huge business
Saturday, December 2, 2006 | AY

Surrogate motherhood is the process whereby a woman agrees to carry a child for a childless couple and then to deliver the baby for them nine months later, usually in return for some monetary compensation. There are several forms of this, all made possible by advances in human fertility technology, mostly notably in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Already, there has been a spurt in ''medical tourism'' in India, as five-star hospitals staffed by qualified doctors and nurses provide much cheaper and equally efficient services to visitors from abroad. This same much less expensive system of privileged health facilities, combined with a large number of available women of reproductive age, are a potent combination effectively pushing for the emergence of ''reproductive tourism''. Reproductive tourism is potentially a huge business: ICMR estimates that it could earn $6 billion in a few years. Also, as more and more poor women are drawn into it, they receive incomes much larger than they could access within their existing livelihood and with their levels of skill. A former Health Secretary of Gujarat has apparently described this new ''capitalistic enterprise'' as a ''win-win situation'' and recommended its extension to poor states in India.

Gujarat will lead in IT in the country by 2010
Saturday, December 2, 2006 | AY

Chief Minister Narendra Modi has set deadline of year 2010 for making Gujarat a leader in the IT field. Speaking at the IT Summit held here today he said that those who say that Gujarat has missed the IT bus would say let’s go to Gujarat not to miss our IT bus. Chief Minister said that Gujarat had proven its excellence in the field of manufacturing, it was making giant leaps in the service sector and it was all set to make spectacular achievement in the IT industry.