Gujarat is the first and only state in India to set up a separate Ministry for Climate, headed by a member of the cabinet, the state's Chief Minister, Bhupendra Patel, has said. It is now in the process of setting up a university to study and mitigate the effects of climate change. India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has praised Gujarat for taking this initiative. 'It is a happy coincidence for me that Gujarat is the land where the solar revolution began in India,' Modi said while inaugurating a Global Renewable Energy Investor's Meet and Expo (RE-INVEST) in Gandhinagar city. 'Gujarat is the first state in India to introduce a solar power policy in India. At a time when solar power was not widely discussed in India, hundreds of megawatts of solar plants were being generated in Gujarat,' Modi said. According to the Minister in charge of the state's Ministry of Climate Change, Mulubhai Bera, 'Gujarat is the first and only state in India, the first in Asia and fourth in the world to form an independent M inistry for Climate Change at the provincial level.' It has also set up the Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA) 'to provide guidance on research in the context of climate change and to encourage maximum utilisation of clean technologies to boost the economy and orient itself to climate change adaptation and mitigation.' Source: Emirates News Agency