Kalam tells World Bank to work for inclusive growth

New Delhi, May 28 (UNI) President A P J Abdul Kalam today made out a case for inclusive growth, saying that the nine per cent growth in GDP was not getting fully reflected in the lifestyles of a large number of people, especially those residing in the rural areas.

Inaugurating 'The India Development Market Place 2007' at the World Bank's office here, Dr Kalam said all out efforts were needed to be made to bring a much larger number of people above the poverty line within the next 13 years, removing social inequities and inculcating social cohesion by developing a spirit of working together for the larger good of society.

"The World Bank, in partnership with Governments, is developing strategies to meet the development agenda of the nations," Dr Kalam said .

He said the country had developed a 'National Prosperity Index (NPI)' which takes several parametres into account. These are (a) Annual growth rate of GDP; (b) improvement in quality of life of the people, particularly those living Below the Poverty line, and (c) the adoption of a value system derived from our civilisational heritage in every walk of life which was unique to India.

The implication of the President's remark was that National Income--the conventional method of measuring prosperity-- was inadequate and failed to take into account some non-material aspects crucial for measuring contentment of people.

Dr Kalam said the NPI would be a sum total of all the parameters used in the index.

The President commended the initiative for its focus on establishing sustainable rural development.

He noted with saitisfaction that out of the 20 innovations selected in the India Development Marketplace-2004 (IDM-2004), in which he had participated, two of them had found a place in today's exhibition -- one pertaining to dew harvesting for drinking water in coastal Gujarat and second related to Asom's River Network Harnessing System for providing a medical delivery system to the isolated regions.

Dr Kalam asked the Bank to study the innovative practices conceived and reported by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF), and said it should nurture the "select few" that have the potential of changing the lives of rural populace.

"This approach will facilitate finding of solutions for rural problems in a natural way by keeping the local conditions in mind," he said.

The President delved at length on his social tranformation project -- 'Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas' (PURA). He traced its effectivness in transforming lives in several areas, including Vallam in Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district, in all the 65 villages in the Periyar PURA rural cluster and in Gumoria village in Asom.

The President said this would bring to light the need for World Bank to have a database on development needs of a particular region through State machinery and also private agencies. The database so created would assist the multilateral funding agency to decide the choice of area of work for meeting the development agenda of an area.

UNI