Karnataka - Bangalore   

Chidambaram calls for inclusive growth

Bangalore: Addressing members of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry here on Friday, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said the process of economic liberalisation had, over the last 17 years, made India a stronger force on the global stage. “The foundation for economic strength is growth, which must be inclusive so that everybody benefits from it,” he said.

“Bangalore could not have been where it is today, but for liberalisation,” he said. “It is because Bangalore is more competitive and efficient than Silicon Valley that it became such an important centre of global outsourcing,” he said. However, he warned that Bangalore might lose its advantage if its competitors in other parts of the world became more efficient. He praised the State’s fiscal progress, which had resulted in a revenue surplus since 2004-05.

Mr. Chidambaram said the sections “left out, such as farmers, people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes, minorities and those working in “small occupations,” must be “brought into the mainstream.”

To do this, the government needed revenues, which could only be mobilised if there was economic growth, he said. He said the average annual rate of growth during the four years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was 8.8 per cent. He pointed out that the average growth rate was only 5.5 per cent when the NDA government was in power. “India,” he said, “is the second fastest growing economy in the world, next only to China.”

Listing the achievements of the UPA government in the last four years, he pointed out that tax revenues had more than doubled between 2004 and 2008, despite the cuts in customs and excise and the reduction in income tax rates. “I now have more money to spend on education, health, ports and roads,” he said.

The UPA government, he said, had increased allocations for education, health, the mid-day meals scheme and other welfare schemes.

Referring to Karnataka as a “front-runner” of the Self-Help Group (SHG) movement in the country, Mr. Chidambaram said 30 lakh SHGs have “credit links with banks.”

He said the banks had given 12.51 educational loans, amounting to Rs. 19,771 crore. “This is the biggest educational loan programme anywhere in the world,” he said.

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