PM urges CMs to pay attention to human development

Chandigarh, Sep 28 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today urged the Chief Ministers of northern states to attach special importance to human development challenges in the region.

Inaugurating the Chief Ministers' Conclave, organised by the PHDCCI here, he said the northern region needs to improve its human development indicators. ''You have to invest in your people. While we in Delhi are providing a supportive policy environment, you will have to do much more to capitalise on the emerging knowledge economy,'' he said.

''You need not just better primary schools; you need more colleges, technical institutions, vocational training programmes and R&D centres. This is true for all states,'' he added.

He said there are exciting initiates going on in some states.

Chandigarh, for example, is moving towards competency tests and certification of graduated so that it can become an IT hub. ''We need more such initiatives.'' He said one reason for our optimism about sustaining India's current growth process is ''our demographic profile''. India is increasingly becoming a country of young people. ''We are home to 20 per cent of the world's population below 24 years of age.'' He said this youthful population will provide the human resource and their savings, the financial resource, for sustaining growth in the next 20 years.

However, he said, '' We cannot simply assume that demographic trends will automatically translate into accelertated growth.'' He said people without capabilities, without education, without skills, without health care, without the required social and economic infrastructure need not be productive agents. In fact, they can be economic and social liabilities, he added.

Dr Singh said people empowered by capabilities translate into a national asset.

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