Emphasise on education to achieve economic growth: Expert

Workshop on Indian economy and economic survey 2010 held

Speaking at a workshop on ‘Indian economy and economic survey 2010’ organised by Corporation Bank in association with Justice K S Hegde Institute of Management here on Wednesday, he said education is the backbone of the country.

The reason for India to take off during 1990s was the emphasis given to education sector. We need both government and private sectors to take part in education. For a vibrant society, fundamental science, literature should flourish in Indian soil.”  He said “growth must be treated as an instrument to reach out the fruits of the growth to the entire population, whom once were neglected.

He opined that fiscal deficit is like an antibiotic, continued or over use of which could spell disaster to the economy.  Specifying the importance of agriculture sector which constitutes the major chunk of Indian economy, Dr Basu expressed the need for more initiatives towards providing boost to the agriculture.

There is a need to have infrastructural investment in agriculture. The increase in agriculture productivity alone can not bring in growth. There is a need to develop industries and need to have anti-poverty programmes. There is a need to spread the benefits of growth among all sections of the people.”

He said “Government spends huge amount on food subsidy. Unfortunately, it reaches very few targeted persons. We have to work on delivery mechanism.”  Senior Economic Advisor of Ministry of Finance Dr H A C Prasad said the year 2008-09 was trumultous for the global trade. However, India withstood the situation. India’s share in world export is only 1.2 per cent.

There is a need to boost export sector in terms of strategy. Dr Prasad hoped that the economy which is growing at the rate of 7.5 per cent would pick up and likely to reach a double figure in the near future.

Stating that there is a need to revamp the education system especially the university education, he said there is a mismatch between the supply and the demand. Once every citizen of the country gets Unique Identity, then it will be easier for us to check whether the benefits of growth are reaching the target.

Later, to a query on dwindling of agriculture land, Dr Prasad said “it is true that farming sector is affected in coastal districts. However, many farmers are benefited from the debt waiver scheme and minimum support price. It is true that prices of agriculture crops have come down drastically. The diversification in farming sector is the need of the hour to avoid the loss.”

Nitte University Chancellor N Vinay Hegde stressed upon the need to focus on basic issues concerning the deprived classes of the society. It is imperative that the deprived classes should be brought within the gamut of inclusive growth.  Corporation Bank Chairman and Managing Director J M Garg, JKSHIM Director Dr M S Moodithaya, Executive Directors Narendra Singh and Asit Pal, and Additional Economic Advisor Gyan Bhuhan were present.