Ahmedabad: Gujarat’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose in double digits thrice during the last one decade. In comparison, India’s GDP could never cross single-digit growth even once. Clearly, if the country posted handsome growth during 2000-2009, it was on the back of a strong performance by the country’s power-house - Gujarat.

This, despite the state having suffered badly at the hands of two major disasters at the turn of the decade the 2001 earthquake and the 2002 communal riots. Official statistics show that Gujarat’s growth has been ahead of India’s average in the best and worst of times, except in 2006-07. This has been the case even in the previous decades, as the state’s manufacturing sector has been its main strength. It is however, heartening to note that Agri-culture is making a strong comeback in Gujarat and today accounts for a significantly higher share in GDP growth, even as the contribution of the manufacturing sector has come down marginally. This can be attributed to the better availability of water in semi-arid regions of the state which are now growing cash crops where nothing used to grow earlier.

If port-related development around Jamnagar, Hazira and Dahej accounts for the state’s impressive industrial growth, along with liberal post-quake incentives given to investments in Kutch, the coming decade could well belong to the Japan-funded Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). Nearly 40 per cent of the corridor will fall in Gujarat - a state which is far ahead of others in terms of building infrastructure along this belt.

Fuelling Gujarat’s dreams in the coming decade will be a vast gas grid; now extending nearly 1500 km. Gas struck by Reliance and the state owned GSPC has only started trickling into the state from the Krishna-Godavari basin. Looking at the number of power plants that are coming up in the state in the coming years, it is clear that gas-fuelled power plants will drive the state’s economy to new heights, giving more double digit growth in the coming years in order to fulfill the projections of India’s growth of around 7 to 8 per cent.