Kamal Naths says, infrastructure development critical for inclusive growth

Davos, Jan 23 : Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday said that infrastructure development was critical for inclusive growth, which would be important for India to continue on the growth path.

"The expectations of the youth and making them employable were a major human skills development exercise," Nath said at the breakfast session organised by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and IBEF at the World Economic Forum here.

He also focussed on the need for infrastructure development and detailed the several initiatives like the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, a 90 billion dollars project.

Nath pointed out that agricultural productivity and using the benefits of research in agriculture was important for India.

"India was not diverting agricultural land to grow bio fuels, but focusing on bio fuels growing on non-agriculture land," Nath said.

Referring to the developments in financial circles, Nath said there were two additional drivers in the global economy - India and China, which opened up new avenues for global funds deployment

International CEOs present at the meeting were Pierre Beaudoin, President and CEO Bombardier; Mark Tucker, Group CEO Prudential Plc; Anton Van der Lande, VP UPS; Yasuo Hayashi, Chairman and CEO Jetro; Sanjay Jha, COO, Qualcomm Plc; Peter Bakker, CEO TNT NV; Terry Hill, Chairman, Arup Group; Indra Nooyi, Chairman and CEO, Pepsico.

Manvinder Banga, President - Foods, Unilever NV; Francois Barrault, CEO, BT Global Services. The Indian team was represented by K V Kamath, VP, CII; Ajay Shankar, Secretary DIPP; Renu Sharma, JS, DIPP, Amitava Tripathi, Indian Ambassador; Ashwin Dani, Vice Chairman and MD, Asian Paints; Madhur Bajaj, Vice Chiarman, Bajaj Auto; Rajendra Pawar, Chairman NIIT; Jayant Bhuyan, CEO IBEF were also present during the meeting.

ANI