Delivering a presentation organised by the Citizens Forum for Mangalore Development and the Mangalore Chapter of the Association of British Scholars here on Sunday, he stressed the need to formulate an inclusive model for growth and importance of developing a genuine model and not imitating the United States on everything.

Growth concept
India has recorded 9.2 per cent growth and former president Abdul Kalam has envisioned a 14 per cent growth, but nobody cares to understand what growth is. Is it just the mount of money the exchanges have? Dr Sharma questioned and wondered what growth it is when 36 million people in India still don’t earn Rs 20 a day.

US model
Coming down heavily on the Indians’ blind imitation of the United States in various aspects related to farming, he pointed out that the US model is not something that a country like India can follow as the conditions over there is quite different from ours. He also pointed out the irony in various steps taken by the Indian government which has backfired in the attempt to blindly follow the US model, which has not been a success even in the US.

Speaking on the proposed 500 SEZs in India, he said that China, on which India has modelled the SEZs still has only 6 of them and are satisfied with it. Recalling that Sardar Vallabhai Patel spent 15 years to join the princely states of India after Independence, Dr Sharma cautioned that these SEZs will form 500 princely states with their own rules and laws. The companies in the SEZs who promise millions of job opportunities usually fail to keep their promise he added.

Cautions
Leaving out the poor is what globalisation is all about and India is also trying to push the poor out of the scene. The result of this neglect will be large scale migration of the poor to urban areas or the uncontrollable development of naxalism, Dr Sharma cautioned.

As a remedy to the imminent crisis in the farming sector, he suggested the inclusion of the 15 crore farming families in India in the 6th pay commission and providing them a direct income support of atleast Rs 10,000 a month. The expense for this will not amount to the loss created due to tax exemption on the SEZs, he added.

DC’s response
Deputy commissioner M Maheshwara Rao, in his response to Dr Sharma’s presentation focused on the truths that the latter had exempted.

He admitted that the problems raised by him are valid and need immediate attention, at the same time pointed out that increase in productivity and not increase in agricultural land is what India needs to make itself self sufficient.

Citing the various reasons for rural people’s migration to urban areas, he said that Dakshina Kannada is much more urbanised that most other parts of India and what we really need is more employment opportunities.
 
If SEZs are the way out, it is the responsibility of administration to facilitate it, the DC added.

The Deputy Commissioner and Dr Sharma later answered various queries from the participating crowd.