President lays Stress on Quality Edn, Skill Development

Emphasizing the need for quality education and skill development, President Pranab Mukherjee today exhorted the economists, think tank and academia to formulate guidelines for inclusive growth by providing jobs and employment opportunities.

Delivering the inaugural address at the three-day 98th Indian Economic Association Conference in coordination with Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) at Agriculture University here, the President said that inclusive growth is possible when the fruits of labour and development reach the last man of the society. Economic growth and sustainable development go hand in hand to bring deprived classes in to mainstream, he said. Getting nostalgic of associating for long time with IEA and noted economists like Amartya Sen, Manmohan Singh, Gadgil, Brahmanandam and others, he said that economists play a key role in national growth and financial development. ‘As Union finance minister I presented 2009-10 Budget giving concessions to industry sector to offer more employment opportunities. Though we were eager to see rise in GDP to more than seven per cent there were daunting problems. We need to address poverty, hunger, drought and farmers problems. India being a resilient economy, it withstood global recession of US financial crisis and Eurozone crisis with minimal economic downturn. We need to capitalize on these inherent and intrinsic strengths to create jobs and entrepreneurial ecosystem’, he said.

           

Citing that Sundar Pichai, Chief of Google, Satya Nadella CEO of Microsoft,  rising from Indian educational system, he said that it is a  litmus test for economists and  policy planners in  creating such employability on domestic soil. The president called upon the economists and academicians to inculcate standards among the students to create jobs rather than seeking them and excel at international level. Centre’s Make in India, Startup India and Prime Minister Jan Dhan scheme are aimed at inclusive growth, he said and called upon the seminarians to come out with suitable recommendations. He asked them to focus on human capital development and inclusive growth through a set of 17 goals and 169 associated targets to be achieved by 2030 to end extreme poverty, hunger for gender equality and healthy lives and reducing inequalities amongst the countries.

IIT Delhi and Indian Institute of Science of Bangalore are the two top institutions of 200 global institutions he said. Governor ESL Narasimhan, Deputy Chief Minister Mahamood Ali, World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu presided, former CESS director Ch Hanmantha Rao and others were present. (NSS)