CM addressed CAs on ‘CA Day’ and Golden Jubilee Celebrations of ICAI’s Ahmedabad Chapter

• It has been established that ‘Gujarat means Development and Development means Gujarat’.
• In 2011-12, the developmental expenditure was 65% of the total budget and only 35% was non-planned.
• In 2001, the state had begun the journey with Rs6,700 crore revenue deficit and today Gujarat is moving ahead with a surplus of Rs3,000 crore.
• In 2001, Gujarat GEB’s yearly deficit was Rs2,500 crore and in past 10 years, there has been no rise in the tariff.
• Gujarat is the only state in the country that provides uninterrupted 24x7 three phase power to 18,000 villages under ‘Jyotigram’ scheme without raising a single paisa.
• Gujarat has been able to acheviev an agriculture growth of 11% throughout the past decade.
• Gujarat has established nearly 2.5 lakh women’s self-help groups in the state during the last two and a half years.

On July 1, 2012, Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed chartered accountants on the occasion of ‘CA Day’ and celebrations of Golden jubilee Year of the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (ICAI), Ahmedabad Chapter, in Ahmedabad. In his address, the CM spoke about the future of the country that lies in the hands of young CAs, today.You can view the details of the event here.

Well I would say who can keep an eye on all this? Who can stop such malpractices from taking place? Today I say the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India is working towards achieveing a corruption- free work environment for the future chartered accountants.

Elections are being held since years in this country and the fact that there is any agency like Election Commission to conduct elections, is not known to a lot of people. After TN Seshan became the 10^th Chief Election Commissioner of India, people came to know that there is an agency called Election Commission for conducting elections across the country. There were systems set aside for procedures and people employed for specific work but all this didn’t work. Institutions like ICAI work with a motive that benefits citizens and the nation, at large. Such institutes shall work towards bringing out transparency as it is a great way to render services to our country.

Friends! A lawywer’s job is to win cases for his clients and with changing times, it seems that lawyers will do anything to win the cases. But how does a CA comes into picture then? CA’s job is to regulate the system; advise the client; educate him of right and wrong and warn him of dire consequences, if he goes the wrong way. This is where the institution’s role comes into play. It is a fact that once upon a time, the country produced very less number of chartered accountants. But times have changed and this year we are celebrating Golden Jubilee Year with 5,000 CAs in Ahmedabad.  And if we talk about the entire Gujarat, we may have 10,000 CAs. Friends! This number is only going to increase in the coming years!

Friends! People are trying hard to defame Gujarat because neither they are able to grow nor they can see anybody else grow. In spite of so many hurdles and oppositions, it has been established that ‘Gujarat means Development and Development means Gujarat’. The state began its journey in 1960.

Friends! You will be surprised to know that when I accepted the responsibility of Gujarat in 2001, there was planned and unplanned expenditure. Earlier, other expenditure was double than the developmental expenses! In 2011-12, the developmental expenditure was 65% of the total budget and only 35% was non-planned and that too after salary rise as per different pay commissions. In the sixth pay commission we increased the share for development and reduced the amount for other expenses.

Friends if we accept the financial policies implemented by the government, as it is, great reforms can be brought about without facing much difficulties! In these 10 years, there has not been any addition, even of a single rupee, in taxation in the state. In 2001, we had begun the journey with Rs6,700 crore revenue deficit and today Gujarat is moving ahead with a surplus of Rs3,000 crore. Friends, people in the industry belive that a PSU in India is bound to die an infantile death. It is assured that any PSU would become non-functional in some time and that it would lead to losses and more sufferings for the people. Most of the Indian government owned companies in electricity sector are running into losses. In 2001, Gujarat GEB’s yearly deficit was Rs2,500 crore and in past 10 years, there has been no rise in the tariff.  However, when made the comparision, the rates of coal and transportation charges, salaries of government employees and cost of wires, have increased. In spite of increase in the burden, Gujarat is the only state in the country that provides uninterrupted 24x7 three phase power to 18,000 villages under ‘Jyotigram’ scheme without raising a single paisa. I would say all this is feasible, if our intensions are good.

Friends, we want to achieve 4% agriculture growth across India. For the past 20 years the target has been fixed and has remained the same. Every year we decide that this year we will surely achieve the target. But unfortunately, we are not able to achieve beyond 2.5-3% growth in agriculture sector. This year too it has not gone above 2.5%. Friends, Gujarat, whose major part is ‘Registan’ (desert) with no perennial rivers except Narmada and Tapti, has been able to achieve an agriculture growth of 11% throughout the past decade (2001 to 2011). We are much ahead of other developing countries of the world and I would say that Gujarat has not only made progress in agriculture sector but in other fields too. Friends,  people were migrating from Kutch as the region registered negative growth and the devastating earthquake of 2001 added to the miseries of the government. However, friends thereafter started the development journey of Kutch. People of Kutch, a desert, started exporting fruits to the world markets. Today we have export quality ‘Kesar’ mangoes from Junagadh, Gir and Talala. Friends, ‘Kesar’ mangoes of Kutch have created a big market in the world. In the coming days, the state government is planning to do value addition to the agriculture sector. It is also making arrangements to progress in the sector of food processing and improve farmers’ lives.

Friends, people across the world are worried about recession as it affects a common man. There are people who have been affected by the recession in the past and you never know when is your turn? How to come out of this recession? Recession hit the world in 2008 and the question on everyone’s mind was—will India be hit by recession? In such a scenario, Gujarat was the only state that decided to challenge the situation and in 2009 organized Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit. It  was successful in inviting people to invest lakhs and crores of rupees. It is the foremost responsibility of the government in Delhi to see that India doesn’t become a market for other countries during recession. For the world, India is a huge market and the government should make sure that India just does not remain a market, but make the entire world its market. Friends! India has a lot of  talent. If we once decide on achieving our goal, there should be no looking back.

Friends, there was a time when PL-480 wheat was available. People were fed up of importing wheat from outside India. Lal Bahadur Shastri was the one who called for the farmers of the nation and coined the slogan‘Jai Javan, Jai Kisan’. He asked the farmers to grow and fill the godowns with food grains. Within no time the same farmers were not only able to grow and fill the godowns with the produce from their farms but were also able to say no to the import. This proves that there exists a pool of talent in this country. Now, the question arises as to how the country should make the world its market? Can’t we decide that whatever the country produces or manufactures will have zero defects? And once we create such an image, the entire world will buy ‘Made in India’ products. Friends, with 120 crore people, 240 crore arms, I don’t think we lack in talent or potential and that there is nothing beyond our reach in this world! With this attitude, we can take a step in this direction and strive to become economic superpower in the world. What is needed here is determination. If we have potential, why can’t we build a society that gives priority to efficient governance? Efficiency gives us the strength to go ahead of others in the competitive world. If efforts are made in this direction, I am sure changes will occur.

This is the year of Swami Vivekanandaji’s 150^th anniversary and Gujarat has decided to celebrate it as a ‘Year of Youth Power’. Friends! When we ask which country of the world will rule 21^st century, the two names that come to the mind are India and China. Some say it is China, but basically Asia will rule the 21^st century. If Asia rules the 21^st century, how can we make India rule the 21^st century? Once during a speech Prime Ministerji said the government of India is thinking of starting 500 different types of skill development projects in India. It is the dream of 120 crore countrymen that India, whose 65% population is below 35 years of age, rules the 21^st century and India’s Prime Minister says that we have a target of 500 skill development projects in India. Compared to this, how many skill development projects the China government is runnig? Friends, you will be surprised to know that the China government is running 50,000 skill development programmes of various types for preparing the country’s youth. Today, Gujarat has undertaken skill development campaign and a meeting of officers was called for discussing the same. The state government decided that for carrying out programmes of skill development at a large scale, we should aim at raching ahead of China in this field. Friends, we then gave a suggestion to the government—prepare a list of services that a person requires from his birth time till death! The services required have to be in proportion to the skills the state possesses. Only then the services can be provided! If you want a bouquet, shouldn’t you have a bouquet maker to make one? It is very simple. After preparing the list, it was found that 976 different types of services are required by a person since birth till death. Friends, how much scope do we have! If we have skill, we can make use of the youth’s skills to progress and in this direction, Gujarat has given precedence to the year of youth power. Gigantic work is being done for the skill development programme.

Friends, ‘Mission Mangalam’. I wish chartered accountant friends take interest in this project and consider this as a charity work. A campaign for women’s self-help group has been initiated. We established nearly 2.5 lakh women’s self-help groups in Gujarat during the last two and a half years. The government gives them some amount in the beginning and also arranges from the banks so that they are able to run their business. These ‘Sakhi Mandals’ of Gujarat, work under ‘Mission Mangalam’ scheme and make business worth nearly Rs1,600 crore. The women of poor families run business worth Rs1,600 crore. In near future, we want the figure to reach Rs 5,000 crore. Think how much money the poor women will earn out of this and experience says that 99% women deposit money one day prior to the due date. Friends, by considering these our strengths Gujarat is moving forward.

Gentlemen! I still remember I had recently taken charge as the Chief Minister and as part of the tradition, the Chamber of Commerce invited me to felicitate. I had to give a speech and perhaps it was my first speech. Since I had never even been a sarpanch prior to this, so everyone doubted my capabilities. People thought what this person will accomplish in Gujarat? And I would say the doubts were geneuine. It is similar to a situation where a person who does not know anything about cooking and has never entered kitchen before in life, is asked to prepare food for five persons! People thought on similar lines. Anyway, I would say that you all put your confidence in me and gave me a chance to carry out the responsibility. I addressed the audience and remember very distinctively that it was my first day and all the known personalities from industry and commerce were sitting in front of me. I spoke that our country requires 50,000 MW electricity and that we have a vast coastline. If Gujarat decides, it can produce 20,000 MW power by importing coal. I was a 7-day- old Chief Minister. Think of the impact my statement would have made? The audience began discussing that this person addressing us is not knowledgeable enough to understand the difference between Mega Watt and Kilo Watt. Gujarat at that time used to produce a total of 4,000 MW electricity. And I was speaking of producing 20,000 MW of electricity. People thought there must have been some confusion! People thought that a Chief Minister who does not even realise the difference between Mega Watt and Kilo Watt—how  can he run a state like Gujarat? Such was the takeaway from that day’s speech. Gentlemen, I am happy to share this today that after 10 years, more than 20, 000 MW of power is being generated. I am sure those great personalities must have realized their ignorance by now. Friends, the crux of the matter is that there was a time when I would present my ideas to the people and they would be left wondering as their approach towards accomplishing tasks was way different than mine.

Friends, BRTS failed across the country, however, the same BRTS is running successfully in Gujarat. The difference lies in the approach and the manner in which you carry out a process. I will illustrate an example of what problems can arise when there is difference in the approach being followed. Friends, I had written a letter to the Prime Minister, some one and a half years back. Tell me under what circumstances, a state’s chief minister writes to the Centre? Either he wants to seek financial help or raise quota for wheat or get allotment of funds for roads. Friends! What I wrote in the letter created a stir among the Delhi government. I had written to give the state one of the satellites that India has! Gentlemen, it took the government in Delhi a year to exactly understand the demand that I made before them. People in the political scenario began thinking as to what could be the reason behind making such a demand and from where can one get the idea? One and a half years have passed and the Indian government has not thought about it yet. However, some three months back, Gujarat government received this letter from the Prime Minister stating that the Indian government has made an arrangement where the state would be assigned 90% usage. Today Gujarat is the only  state to demand 36 MHz capacity. Friends, with the help of the satellite, the state wants to carry out activities like tele medicine, long distance education, and in particular long distance education for the children living in remote Vanbandhu areas.

Last year the budget, the government of India came out with a scheme under a pilot project where 3,000 villages were to get broadband connectivity. Two years have passed and there is no news on those 3,000 villages. But Friends, our government has already given broadband connectivity to 18,000 villages four years back. Such is the difference. Whether it is about skill development, agriculture, use of satellite, or broadband connectivity, you can see Gujarat progressing in every field.

Friends, no one was ready to venture into solar power sector in India! Gujarat was the first state to come out with a solar policy. When power is available at a rate of Rs3 - 3.5 per unit, who would want to buy it at the rate of Rs13 per unit?  Several allegations were made, but we decided to bring in some change as change is inevitable. Without bringing in the required changes, the natural resources will one day get depleted completely. Gujarat governmet took a bold decision in this regard based on which the government of India decided to keep the rate as Rs19 per unit. I thought it was over for Gujarat as with this rate who would want to come to Gujarat government? We were sure that our 2-years of hard work had all gone in vain. But friends, see how great is the power of faith? In spite of Rs19 per unit, no one approached the government in Delhi but instead approached Gujarat government that offered Rs13 per unit. While on one hand, Gujarat has 700 MW solar power, on the other hand India has 120 MW. Friends, we started with Rs13 per unit and in near future will make it available at nearly Rs7-8 per unit.

Friends, because of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, Gujarat’s economy will grow in the coming days and the state will become gateway of India as a lot of development will take place at its ports. Dholera Special Investment Region is coming up at a distance of only 60 kms from Ahmedabad. You can imagine the kind of development that will take place here! If there are any beneficiaries, it is you.  My good wishes are with you and may you progress with this resolve during this Golden Jubilee Year.

Thank you..!!