President Pranab Mukherjee today said India will become a “modern economic power in the world” if the government’s innovative schemes such as ‘Clean India’ and ‘Digital India’ are implemented successfully.
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As India is on a cusp of second Green Revolution, the country needs to learn from Israel to boost crop productivity by using modern technologies, he said.
“New initiatives which our government has initiated in all areas of economic activity particularly innovative schemes like ‘Make in India’, ‘Clean India’, ‘Smart India’, Digital India — successful implementation of all these will convert this ancient civilisation into a prosperous, vibrant and modern economic power in the world,” Mr. Mukherjee said at the inaugural function of CII Agro-tech event here.
To become a modern economic power, he stressed on “effectively using our resources” and increase farm productivity to the maximum level.
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“We have to learn from Israel which has achieved higher yields using water-efficient irrigation technologies to the optimum level,” he said while lauding Israel’s efforts in making the country a food surplus and water surplus nation.
Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin, who was the guest of honour at the agri-event, said the strengthening of ties between the nations can bring ‘magic in the world’ as the two countries have potential to scale up.
“When Israeli companies and Indian farmers are networking, they are doing magic together. You once said that every country has its own way to move forward. India leads the world in innovation and can scale up,” he said.
Mr. Rivlin shared that India taught Israel about the importance of food security. “In Israel, we are more concerned about inland security. India taught that the greatest challenge is food security.”
On a lighter note, Mr. Rivlin said he fell in love with Hindi word ‘jugad’ and added, “The state of Israel is jugad. There is ‘jugad’ in the way we work and the innovation....”
He is on a state visit to India on the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee.
India and Israel signed agreements for agriculture partnership in 2006 under which Israel has been sharing its best practices and knowledge through professional training programmes.
Stating that India’s economic growth has been substantial in the last decade and a half, Mr. Mukherjee said, “We have achieved 7.6 per cent GDP growth despite the fact that there had been a slow down in the world economy and trade because of adverse impact of financial crisis of 2008 and subsequently lingering euro-zone crisis and its impact.”
India’s growth is of course not to the level of neighbouring China, which has grown steadily to become the world’s second largest economy in terms of absolute income, trade and current account balance, he said.
The arena of economic activity and technology development has shifted from Europe and North America to Africa and Asia, he said.
Emphasising the need of modern technologies in the farm sector, the President said that the country has made great strides since independence with the overall foodgrain production increasing from 50 million tonnes in 1947 to 270 million tonnes this year.
“During the partition period, we were dependent on import of foodgrains. We were in ‘Ship to kitchen’ situation. I am happy we have overcome that,” he said.
Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Punjab Governor V.P. Singh Badnore, among others, were present at the event.
Nearly 92 domestic and global players from 13 countries are participating in the 12th edition of the fair, in which Israel is the partner country with Canada and Germany as focus countries and the UK as the guest country.