Ports

Globalization and liberalization of markets are significantly increasing, making the world smaller as we speak, these advancements demand the movement of merchandise, goods and services, and for the wide range of activities in the logistics sector. Globalization of goods and services is at an all-time high, where foreign industries are coming to countries like India, for all kinds of benefits and in the process opened up avenues for growth. Globalization is heavily dependent on logistics, shrinking the world borders in happening because of the advancements in transportation & logistics. Kutch serves at the for-front of a logistically well-located district of Gujarat, as it has fully functional & capable access to the sea via 3 major ports.

Industry

Industrialization in Gujarat did not have a major impact on Kutch till the year 2000. After the earthquake of 2001, the Government of India and the State Government of Gujarat started providing incentives with relaxations in excise duty and sale tax to promote rapid industrialization in Kutch. Incentives given by the governments have facilitated a boom in the number of attracted industries and investments in the region. After the special incentives are provided for Kutch in the year 2001 industrial progress attained a new momentum. After 2001 in Gujarat projects with a total investment of INR 612.61 billion were sanctioned and out of it projects of INR 179.55 billion (till August 2004) were in Kutch, which is a remarkable 29 % of the total investment in Gujarat. This figure has crossed INR 200 billion in January 2005 and further crossed INR 300 billion in June 2015.

Mining

Kutch is an extremely rich region for non-metallic minerals. The region has the largest reserves of limestone, kaolin, bauxite, silica sand and bentonite in Gujarat and these reserves are also significant as far as India’s reserves for these minerals are concerned. Kutch has the largest number of mines under lease in Gujarat. In 2002-03, 628 mines and quarry with an area of 7974 hectares was leased mineral production and Kutch is the largest contributor of royalties earned from leased mines in Gujarat.

Figures of production of different minerals in Kutch show that the mining and mineral industry has grown significantly after the year 2000. Today, it is the largest producer of kaolin, lignite, bentonite and salt in Gujarat.