Public Relations
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The year that was...
The year 2009 saw the industry combating the shadows of global slowdown. A year full of challenges, which kick-started with the Vibrant Gujarat summit, was also a blessing in disguise in some cases especially with pharma companies returning homewards to Gujarat or brain drain from the reputed insitutes like IITs and IIMs being contained for the time being. While acquisitions and mergers gained some momentum in the later half of 2009, some of the special economic zone projects were hit. Companies responded with more innovative solutions while waking up to newer challenges. Problems in land acquisitions continue to remain although the process has been far more peaceful in Gujarat as compared to other states. This can be guaged from the fact that the first Nano by Tata Motors at Sanand got ready this year - "Infrastructure will remain the top sector in 2010" - A testing year for students, despite reforms - Go for power IPOs only with a long-term horizon - Rajasthan govt to buy 1200 MW from Adani Power - Adani Group intends to increase area of its SEZ in Mundra - Alstom, Bharat Forge to set up Rs 2400 crore facility in Mundra JANUARY Vibrant Gujarat defies slowdown It’s easy to figure out the reason for Modi’s soaring ambition. Vibrant Gujarat 2009, which ended on January 12, saw investment commitments to the tune of $240 billion, or Rs 12 lakh crore, which is 30 per cent more than the country’s gross fixed capital formation in the first half of the current fiscal. The total MoUs signed in the previous three such summits saw total investment commitments of $185 billion (Rs 6.5 lakh crore). Not everyone was impressed with these figures as doubts have been expressed over the conversion rate of these commitments. The Congress, which is the main opposition party in the state, says Vibrant Gujarat is too much of hype as the conversion rate is only 25 per cent. The state government predictably trashes this. Around 60 per cent of investment commitments have actually come, officials say. If these numbers are correct, it’s a significant achievement by any yardstick. And industrialists say there are solid reasons for this enthusiasm, one of them being the state’s ability to execute projects in double-quick time. In his speech on the opening day, Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata said, "States usually take 90-180 days to give clearances for land and other issues. When we were in the process of moving our Nano project to Gujarat, the state government gave us the clearances in just three days. It has never happened before." The leading lights of Indian industry — Mukesh Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Shashi Ruia, Anand Mahindra, Tulsi Tanti etc. — who were present seem to agree, going by the fact that each of them committed mega investments in the state. Vibrant Gujarat was also a personal victory of sorts for Modi. For the summit saw the world opening up to the state, which had slid in the world’s view after the 2002 riots. While Japan was a partner to the two-day Summit, the event saw participation from over 40 countries, including Germany, Spain, Italy, the US, the UK, Canada, France, Kenya, Uganda and Sri Lanka. Earlier, over 110 MPs passed an early-day motion in UK’s House of Commons to support the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit 2009. And this was for the brainchild of a man who was in 2005 denied a diplomatic visa to visit that country because of the post-Godhra riots slur. FEBRUARY Adani plans to merge three SEZs For the first time since its inception in 2006, the Board of Approval on special economic zones (SEZs) in its March meeting took up a proposal from a developer to merge these tax-free industrial enclaves for exports. The Adani group sought the board’s approval to merge its three SEZs at Mundra in Gujarat. The merger will result in lesser expenses on infrastructure, utilities and administration. The three adjacent Adani SEZs are situated near the Mundra Port which too has been promoted by the group. While two of these are multi-product zones, the third is a power SEZ. The combined area of the three SEZs is well over 6,000 hectares. MARCH Ahmedabad set to become Vodafone"s services hub In a bid to increase efficiency, telecom major Vodafone Essar is set to relocate over 1,500 of its employees to Ahmedabad from all over the country. With Vodafone planning to make Ahmedabad its services hub, the city is all set to see an influx of telecom professionals from across 23 circles of the company. What’s more, Vodafone also plans to integrate certain international services at the hub. Vodafone, which is setting up a shared-service centre in Ahmedabad at an investment of Rs 200 crore, had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government for this purpose. Meltdown contains brain-drain Thanks to the global meltdown, the brain-drain to foreign countries from major institutes like the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) is on the wane as of now. Not everyone is calling it a trend, but Indian companies, especially government-owned ones, aren’t complaining. "With fewer foreign companies visiting campus for placements, students are now increasingly open to domestic companies, especially from the public sector. Students have also become more affordable for Indian firms," said Samir Barua, director of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). "The fascination that students had for foreign companies has gone down," he added. APRIL ONGC-TERI in race to clean Gulf oil spill ONGC–Teri Biotech Ltd (OTBL), a joint venture between Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and The Energy and Resources Institute (Teri), is competing to get a contract for cleaning the huge oil spill left over from the 1991 Gulf war in Kuwait. The contract has been floated by Kuwait Oil Company and backed by the United Nations. ONGC has qualified for final bidding of the first phase of the bioremediation project, worth $3 billion. OTBL had first used the microbial product, Oilzapper, in a water body at Mehsana in Gujarat to eliminate an oil spill and manage the sludge created from the first oil well in the region. MAY IPL gets a clone in APL Indian Premier League (IPL) fever may have gripped the country, but in Ahmedabad, cricket fanatics are coping with it in their own way — a mini, amateur version of the Twenty20 tournament called the Ahmedabad Premier League (APL), which began on May 7. The 79-match tournament replicates IPL in almost every way, complete with team franchisees and quirky names, though not the big bucks. Overall, 18 teams were bought and 160 players auctioned on a point system in a span of five hours. This is how it worked. Each owner was given 1,000 points by way of an ‘asset value’ in exchange for Rs 2,350 to buy a team and an additional 8,520 points as ‘liquid points’ to buy players from other teams. Another similarity with the IPL is that the local teams also have some innovative names — Ahmedabad Fakers, Spartans, King Dons, Bullishers, Dark Horse Riders, Devil King Warriors, M United, Rising Star, D Vintage, Splenetics, Youth XI and Wizards to name a few. Diamond industry comes out of the shadow of global meltdown Surat diamond industry regained its lost sparkle. The diamond trade had taken a major hit due to global financial crisis. Out of the total 2,500 to 3,000 diamond cutting and polishing units operational before Diwali vacation in 2008, only 1,000 units could start their operations after the recession had taken its toll on the industry. In May 500 more units resumed work signalling recovery in the market. JUNE SEZ dreams hit roadblock in Gujarat The plunge in the economic growth dented the SEZ dreams of some leading IT & steel players in Guajrat in 2009. Pune-based Vascon Engineers Limited decided to put the project on hold for time indefinite in June this year . The Rs 350 crore project, which was announced in mid 2008, was to be jointly developed by Vascon alongwith Agrawal Estate Organisers of Gujarat and Pristine Properties of Pune. The same month saw DLF deciding to go ahead with its four IT park projects in Gujarat, Haryana, Orissa and West Bengal, sans the SEZ status. DLF had planned 25-acre IT SEZ in Gandhinagar. A few other heavy-weight SEZ projects met with the same fate. The dip in overseas steel market together with revival in domestic demand changed the SEZ plans of Essar Steel and Welspun Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd, two leading players in the steel industry, in September. While Essar Steel may scrap its proposed steel SEZ at Hazira, Welspun Gujarat is considering shifting its existing unit outside the Engineering SEZ at Anjar in Gujarat. Essar has so far invested about Rs 8,000 crore in three manufacturing units and about Rs 200 crore of a proposed Rs 1,000 crore as a developer. Kandla Port Based Special Economic Zone (KPBSEZ), the country’s first port-based SEZ to come up near Kandla in 5,000 hectares also landed in choppy waters.The developer has chalked out project cost of Rs 7,300 crore for development of the zone however the project the development work failed to start even after over two years of getting notified. JULY Japan plans Rs 2k crore eco-town in Dahej Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is aiming to set up an eco-town at Dahej on the lines of Kitakyushu Eco Town. The project is expected to be a part of the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), the first phase of which will come up in Gujarat. The investment for the project could to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore, said a government official familiar with the development. The project titled "Gujarat Re-cycle and Waste Management Zone" will envisage setting up eco-towns at various places in Gujarat including Dahej and Panoli. Dahej which falls in the Dahej Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment RegionPages: [1] 2