He also called for increasing the focus on educational and health status of people, employment generation, social security and empowerment of women and minorities.
The Minister was addressing the launch function of Madurai chapter of Young Indian (Yi), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The CII-Yi was founded in 2002 and comprises a group of young Indian achievers and professionals below 40.
“These are important social responsibilities of both government and business. A stable, equitable and just growth process can only be in the best interests of business enterprise,” he said.
He advocated an increase in the industry’s investments in vocational training and technical education, particularly for youth from a less-privileged background.
Industrialisation
Highlighting the efforts of the State Government in promoting industrial growth, he said that several industrial parks and estates have been established.
“The government has signed 24 MoUs in addition to sanctioning structured package assistance for nine projects. The total investment through these 33 projects would be Rs. 41,241 crore and create employment opportunities for 2.15 lakh persons,” said Mr. Thennarasu.
Speaking about the Yi initiatives of engaging school and college students through its wide network, he said that this opened an avenue of Yi’s Tamil Nadu Chapter to be associated with the School Education Department to get access to the 53,000-odd schools in Tamil Nadu.
Speaking earlier, Rahul Mirchandani, national chairman, Yi, said that this organisation went beyond from being just a think tank that formulated ideas to implementing the proposals.
Karumuttu T. Kannan, managing director of Thiagarajar Mills, said that India was endowed with a favourable democratic spread compared to Europe and Japan, which were aging. Bharath K. S., chairman, CII Madurai Zone, said that 52 members had enrolled into Madurai Chapter of Yi during its launch.
K. Nagaraj has been nominated as the chair of Madurai Chapter. He unveiled the agenda for the year and also introduced various committee members.