The Hindu : Kalam sets agenda for nation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

National

National

Kalam sets agenda for nation

JAMSHEDPUR, FEB. 13. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today set the agenda for turning India into a developed nation by 2020, urging the political leadership and industrialists to transform the ``industrial society'' into a ``knowledge-powered society.'' The industrial society should graduate into a knowledge-powered society in the next 10 years to fulfil India's dream of becoming a developed nation by 2020, he said addressing a function here to celebrate 75 years of industrial harmony at Tata Steel.

Explaining his vision, Mr. Kalam said that while industry should try to achieve ``competitiveness, quality and timely supply,'' society on the other hand should focus on the empowerment of people on the basis of ``values, merits and quality.'' Another factor to become a developed nation is cost-competitiveness for which India has to adopt modern technology, he said.

``Competitiveness is the deciding factor. A developing country, aiming to become a developed nation, has to be competitive on the industrial front to market its products in developed countries,'' Mr. Kalam said. The President also stressed the need for setting up more small-scale industries for economic development.

He advised Indian industry to focus on export of value-added products in the place of raw materials and primary product exports to create more wealth in order to become a major economic power in the next two decades.

``Value addition to primary products will only create more wealth for the people of the country. It's very important for industry to focus on that,'' he said. The President visited the Tata Steel plant.

Citing the example of China, the President also called for increasing the production of steel, saying greater production and consumption of steel are evidence of development standards of a society. ``While India is making only 33 million tonnes of steel now China makes about 130-150 million tonnes.''

At a function of the ``Enterprise-2004,'' an industrial fair organised by the CII's Jharkhand Council here, he appealed to entrepreneurs to also go in for small industries which would play an important role in the economic growth of the country.

PTI

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