Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad   

‘Reap demographic dividend or miss the bus’

-PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

Setting an agenda: Sitaram Yechury, MP and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member, addressing a meeting in Hyderabad on Saturday.

HYDERABAD: CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has called for a greater shift in economic policies at macro level to accord priority to welfare of the poor in order to utilise demographic advantages in the next five years, or else “we will miss the bus forever.”

Delivering the valedictory address at the two-day national conference on ‘Global competitiveness – opportunities and challenges for Indian labour’ here on Saturday, Mr. Yechury suggested increased public investment in creating opportunity to the Indian workforce, instead of focussing on corporate profit.

Explaining why China was getting more FDI than India, he said: “We are often blamed for preventing it. It is not true. They have the necessary infrastructure, which we need to create by enhancing our resource base.” He said he did not mean enhancing taxes or levying of new imposts.

“Reach out to areas where people do not pay taxes at all. Consider situations where a person makes crores of rupees in stock market and yet doesn’t pay taxes and IT companies give employee non-taxable stock options,” he said.

Human resources should be treated as an asset, as 54 per cent of Indian population is below 25 years of age. The Government must provide them necessary education, health, and training to excel in chosen fields.

‘Shining India’ and ‘Suffering India’ could not coexist. With 36 billionaires controlling a fourth of the country’s GDP, a vast population was suffering. Farmer’s suicides, half the children remaining undernourished, a large chunk of population being unable to access potable water reflected the sad state of affairs. The shining story of malls and urbane living was meant only for a miniscule population. Assimilate the suffering towards the shining, he said.

Mr. Yechury wanted the companies not to see cost-cutting (retrenching of labour, employing contract labour or outsourcing the works) as profitability. “CTC should be redefined as Contribution to the Company and not Cost to the Company,” he remarked.

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