Poverty is root cause of terrorism : S P Hinduja

He felt the way out is to create employment opportunities and has appealed the business community to get together to generate employment opportunities especially in the rural and semi-urban areas.

This will also help to stop migration from rural areas to cities and motivate people to stay in their respective hometowns, Hinduja said on sidelines of Jain International Trade Organisation conference here.

According to Hinduja, charity is a temporary measure and not a long-term solution to remove poverty. The real solution lies in creation of employment opportunities.

Hinduja also suggested that if 250-300 million well-off Indians provide job for one person each, it would enable India to come out of poverty. The Centre and state governments should also participate in this process by establishing their back-offices or undertake expansions in semi-urban and rural areas, thereby enhancing employment opportunities and propel development of these cities, Hinduja said.

Employment can be provided in areas like infrastructure, education, health among others and should encompass skilled and semi-skilled labour, he said.

The objective should be to achieve the basic needs of health, education, water, energy, transportation, housing and communication for all Indians, he said.

"If both the Government and the private sector were to undertake this effort, then we could generate massive employment opportunities, which would translate into 500-600 million jobs within the next 2-3 years," Hinduja said.

This in turn will convert into a large consumer base that would propel our economy and make India a strong and influential economic superpower, he said.

Hinduja praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and said, "The business community and the state governments should cooperate with the Prime Minister and pursue the goal of gainful employment."

He highlighted the significant role of NRI community and their USD 25-30 billion annual contribution to the Indian economy through their remittances.

Hinduja demanded that they should be treated at par with local Indians and be given basic rights like the Right to Vote.

"This is the norm in all democratic countries across the world and will ultimately lead to an improvement in the quality of candidates," he said.

Endorsing the worldwide movement towards protecting the environment and pursuing a green earth policy, Hinduja suggested that Indians must be educated and made aware of the issue.

"At the same time, we must first correct ourselves internally, for only then we will feel any concern for the outside world," he said.