The Hindu : Invest more in HRD, PM tells industry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 26, 2003

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National

Invest more in HRD, PM tells industry

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 25. Describing faster growth and employment with equity as the basis of India's economic reforms, the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, today said the growth strategy had to be less capital-intensive, more labour-intensive and productivity-oriented. He called upon industry to substantially augment its efforts in skill-training initiatives and invest more in human resource development to meet the immediate needs and to prepare themselves for the coming challenges.

Speaking after presenting the Prime Minister's Shram Awards, 2001, here, Mr. Vajpayee said the nature of work had been changing in the era of liberalisation and globalisation with technology and market dynamics together having introduced the most revolutionary transformation in the way economic activities were being conducted.

"This has posed two fundamental challenges before all countries, especially the developing ones. Firstly, how do we ensure that every able-bodied person has productive employment and secondly how do we reduce the disparities and inequalities between developed and developing countries, even as the two become more integrated and inter-dependent," he said. Mr. Vajpayee called upon the people to create a new national network work culture as a national and social service.

Pointing out that the change in the economic policies had brought about a visible change in the employment sector, Mr. Vajpayee said the toughest challenge was how quickly could they train the new entrants and aspirants to India's workforce to meet the needs of the domestic and export economy. "In less than a decade, the number of people living below poverty line has come down to 26 per cent — showing a reduction of more than 10 percentage points. Over the last three years, over 70 lakh employment and self-employment opportunities were created each year."

Mr. Vajpayee also called upon industrial establishments to improve the working conditions in the small and medium scale enterprises. In a period of economic reforms, the Government and industry together had to commit themselves to providing reasonable social security to workers, both in the organised and unorganised sectors.

On the one hand, the level of educational attainment of the existing workforce is very low and on the other, educated persons without professional skills constitute nearly 70 per cent of the total unemployment, he said.

The Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma, said the workers in the private and unorganised sectors would also be eligible for the Shram Awards from next year. He said a new Veerangana Award would be included in the series to recognise contribution of women in the labour sector and a woman would also be put in the screening committee.

Mr. Vajpayee presented three Shram Bhushan Awards, six Shram Vir Awards and Shram Devi/Shram Shri Awards. No Shram Ratna Award was presented this time.

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