Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel chief guest at States of Hope event today

In the recently concluded budget session, the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel announced the upgrade of nine municipalities to municipal corporations, taking the total number of municipal corporations to 17 in the state, which is projected to take the urban population to 75 per cent by 2047.

In his 2024-2025 budget speech, state Finance Minister Kanubhai Desai had said the growth rate of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) was 14.89 per cent and the state’s share in the national GDP had gone up from 5.1 per cent in 2000-2001 to 8.2 per cent in the last fiscal.

Powering this has been the robust infrastructure in Gujarat, a state that has traditionally traded with other countries via the sea route. If cities have been the growth engines of the state, it is the states that have been the growth and governance drivers of the country. From transport to agriculture, from amplifying digitalisation to improving infrastructural systems, states are the building blocks in shaping India’s transformation.

The States of Hope series focusing on Gujarat is a compelling exploration of the transformative infra projects across Indian states. These trend-setting projects at the state level transform these regions into islands that the rest of the country and the world can emulate. Implementing these programmes are often challenging. But there are also lessons to be learnt and can be a blueprint to check how future-ready the state is.