one of the most popular cities of Gujarat, Surat used to be a large seaport in the past but not it is the hub for diamond cutting and polishing. It is known to be the eighth largest Indian city and also the administrative capital of Surat district.
Located at 265 kms from the state capital – Gandhinagar, the city is located near the Arabian Sea on Tapti River. As per a survey conducted in the year 2016, Surat was the 4th fastest growing city. The study was conducted by City Mayor’s Foundation and registered an annual GDP growth of 11.5 % over the last seven years. The survey of India’s City Systems also awarded Surat as best City. The city is coming up as a smart Indian City with IT as its base with companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro. About 65% of total population in Surat uses internet, which is a relatively high figure compared to rest of the Indian cities. It is also one of the twenty cities selected by PM Narendra Modi to be developed as Smart City.
Growth prospects
Ranked 10th in the country and with a GDP of 2.60 lakh crore per year, the city is expecting a GDP of $57 billion by the end of year 2020.
Diamond polishing
The city is known to be the hub of Diamond industry in India. It is known for its fine diamond cutting and polishing. The first workshop for diamonds in Gujarat was conducted in Surat in the year 1950. Due to an increasing demand in American market since the early 1970s , the diamond industry has seen a tremendous growth since then. Most workshops, as of now are conducted in Varachha area of Surat , more often than not by Patel community. The rough diamond is sourced from Africa and smooth gems and ornaments are traded to Belgium – another hub of international diamond trade. The city hosts a large number of business travellers from Belgium and other parts of the world for diamond trade. This has been the reason for immense rise in the number of hotels in Surat, especially the ones catering to fine business class guests. Many b2b hotel booking systems also have great offers on Surat hotels, especially around these diamond workshops.
Textiles
When it comes to Surat, anything else than comes to our mind other than diamonds is its textile industry. Known for producing high quality textiles including fine silk, Surat is also known as the textile hub of India and even Silk City of India. Cotton mills and Surat Zari craft is popular among women all over the world. Needless to say, Surat is also one of the biggest manufacturer of Man-made fibre in the country. With a total of 381 dyeing and printing mills and about 41000 power loom units, Surat textiles contribute to over 5 billion rupees per year. The city has over 800 wholesalers of cloths and hosts a myriad of business travellers looking for textiles from Surat in bulk. The city accounts for 9 million metres of fabric per year and has an increasing focus on textile exports.
Information technology
Surat is an upcoming smart city of India and has a lot of SME domestic IT companies besides MNCs like IBM, HCL and TCS etc.
The city administration is already in process of setting up of an IT hub along with an Indian Institute of Information Technology on the outskirts of Surat. This is sure to give rise to a lot of talented youth and immense progress in terms of technology.
Surat is also being constructed as the first smart city of India under the Microsoft City next initiative. The city was also chosen as one of the best global destinations for its smart city ventures for waste management, disaster management as well as citizen services.
With smart city initiative, the city surely promises a lot of business as well as start-up opportunities in the near future.
Having said that, keeping the same vision in mind, government has suggested their plan of building five seven star hotels, banks, corporate trading centres, a couple of entertainment zones as well as various other facilities to assist a large amount of tourists expected in the city.
If you are also planning to travel to Surat anytime soon, do not forget Roomsxpert.com for your corporate hotel bookings. We are a pioneer in business hotel reservations and not just make your bookings faster and convenient but also do the same at best possible price.
Source: https://www.prlog.org/12760934-surat-an-emerging-business-hub.html
