PM exhorts corporate India to build new India

Mumbai, Oct 6 (UNI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today called upon the corporate India to contribute their mite in building a new India to meet the aspirations of new generation of voters and investors who were born in the last 15 years of opening of the country's economy.

Describing the corporates as beneficiaries of a more open economy and an open society, Dr Singh said if they did not address the concerns of young India and did not meet their aspirations they will not forgive us. '' The road ahead has to be defined by their aspirations, and those of coming generations. The challenge before the political leadership in India today is to meet the aspirations of an energetic new India, and, at the same time, take care of the concerns of a less endowed, less privileged sections of society, who are no less energetic.'' Stating that the reforms of the 1990s were '' by and large right'', the Prime Minister, however, admitted that '' there was a relative neglect of investment in agriculture, education and health care''. ''Agriculture and employment generation can be ignored at our own peril. They can put at risk all the benefits that have accrued so far from reforms. We need to expand the meaning of reforms to include the reform of our education and health care systems. We need massive investments in education; in creating new and marketable skills; in skill building and vocational education; in the quality of governance at all levels of Government''.

Speaking at an ET award function here this evening, he said '' if we can devote our energies to improving the quality of our economic and social infrastructure, we can assure future generations that we have served them well''.

Drawing the attention of the corporate India towards the long-term well being of the nation, the Prime Minister reminded them that ''millions of our fellow citizens are still deprived of the benefits of a fast growing economy''. He said while the belief in a market economy is certainly justified, it must be remembered that markets serve those who are part of it. They have no relevance to those who exist on the margins of subsistence and who have neither the physical nor the human resources to participate in them.

''Our growth processes, while generating wealth and prosperity across large sections of society, have not been able to generate employment opportunities on the same scale'', Dr Singh said, adding agriculture in the past few years has not exhibited the dynamism visible in the rest of the economy but continues to support two-third of the country's population.

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