The Hindu : Encourage entrepreneurship: Kalam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 08, 2004

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Encourage entrepreneurship: Kalam

By Our Special Correspondent

Photo: V. Sudershan.

The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, flanked by A.C. Muthiah, outgoing FICCI president (right), and Yogendra Kumar Modi, president-elect of FICCI, at the annual general meeting of FICCI in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: V. Sudershan.

NEW DELHI JAN. 7. The President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, today called upon industry to encourage entrepreneurship to achieve an economic growth of 10 per cent and help the country in eliminating poverty.

"We have to graduate to 10 per cent GDP (gross domestic product) growth only then the number of people living below the poverty line will reduce to zero from 260 million now,'' Mr. Kalam said in his inaugural address at the 76th Annual General Meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Spelling out what he called "Integrated action plan for developed India by 2020,'' the President said the syllabus at the school level would need to be changed with a view to creating entrepreneurs and industry must step in to nurture and encourage entrepreneurship.

In order to transform India into a developed nation by 2020, Mr. Kalam said that industry would have to become competitive globally by achieving cost effectiveness, brand performance and "just in time" delivery.

In plain terms, he declared that whoever was competitive would be the winner. The law of development States that whoever was competitive would win whether developing or developed.

Voicing his concern over lack of amenities in rural areas, he said the programme for "providing urban amenities in rural areas" (PURA) had to be run in a business-like fashion and the industry would have to play a key role in implementing it.

Further talking about what he called "Evolution of PURA enterprise,'' he said the SSI sector with its wide presence across the country could take the lead in this area. With the support of FICCI and other bodies, the SSIs could play a key role in paving the way for provision of physical, electronic, knowledge and economic connectivity for prosperity of clusters of villages in rural areas.

The economic connectivity would generate a market and the production establishments to service the market. The PURA entrepreneur had to have the skill for evolving a business plan with banks and also create infrastructural support such as educational institutions, health centres and small scale industries, transportation services, tele-education, tele-medicine, e-governance services in the region and integrate them with the governmental rural development schemes such as road, communication and transport, he said.

Mr. Kalam said that time had come for the second Green Revolution in the country to meet the food requirement of 400 million tonnes by 2020. This could be achieved through a mix of technology and innovation.

Earlier, addressing the AGM, the FICCI's outgoing President, A. C. Muthiah, asked for changes in labour law besides allowing the entrepreneurs free entry and exit option.

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