Performance should be guided by National Prosperty Index:Kalam

Mysore, Apr 8 (UNI) President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam today said efforts to improve the country's economic performance should be guided by the national prosperity index measured at the given point of time.

He said, ''There should be a progressive reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line leading to its becoming near zero by 2020.'' The President was speaking after inaugurating a three-day National Seminar on 'Religion, Spirituality and Education in the Challenging Globalised World' organised by the St Phelomena College here.

Stating that India was conscious that GDP alone does not fully reflect in the quality of life, Dr Kalam said. ''For a comprehensive and inclusive approach to a measure of true socio economic development, we have evolved what was called 'National Prosperity Index (NPI)' which was a summation of a annual growth rate of GDP, plus improvement in quality of life of the people, particularly those living below poverty line plus the adoption of a value system derived from our heritage in every walks of life.'' He said it was also necessary for transforming the country into a economically developed nation. ''We have a population of over one billion people of which 220 million are still living below the poverty line. Through a national vision, using the core competence of individual state and partnership of knowledge institutions, it would definitely be possible to transform a developing state into a developed state as planned,'' he added.

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