India needs to focus on production, value addition, skill: PM

India would have to work for increasing production, value addition to mineral resources and developing the skills of youths to fight poverty in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today.

"India needs to develop on all these three fronts, increased production, increased value addition to the nation's mineral resources and developing the skills of the youths," Modi said after the inauguration of modernised IISCO Steel Plant here.

"We have iron-ores. We are exporting the mineral and then importing steel from China. Then where is the benefit of having iron-ores?" Modi said. He said if these issues were rightly addressed, the unemployed youths would get jobs and would help the country fight poverty.

Commenting on the economic progress after his government came to power, Modi said even one year ago, the world perceived that India had sunk and that it would not revive.
"But today, international agencies like the World Bank and IMF were saying that India was among the fastest growing nations in the world," he said.