Evolve citizen-centric business policy: Kalam

New Delhi, Apr 29 (UNI) A citizen-centric business policy is the need of the hour, to pave the way for sustainable development and to take the private-public initiatives to a higher pedestal, former President A P J Abdul Kalam said.

Delivering the 36th Shri Ram Memorial Lecture organised by PHD Chamber yesterday, Dr Kalam said that only through an imaginative partnership among various stakeholders, knowledge intensive, egalitarian and creative society could be nurtured.

''The key issues like urban-rural divide, poverty, lack of access to safe drinking water, sanitation and healthcare, lackadaisical growth of agriculture, inadequate educational facilities etc could be resolved only through implementing citizen-centric programs and projects,'' Dr Kalam said.

Laying stress on planned development of agriculture and processing of agri-products, Dr Kalam said that manufacturing and services sectors should play a supportive role in terms of creating facilities for processing, storing and distributing such products.

''Managers across the country can devise schemes for ensuring easy availability of products, in adequate, measure at affordable prices to all,'' he added.

Calling for creation of a World Knowledge Platform, Dr Kalam observed that such institutions integrate core competencies of people cutting across geographies.

''This knowledge mission would pave the way for a seamless flow of knowledge, academic enrichment and would focus on R&D in areas that are relevant to humanity, be it in providing safe drinking water, developing new vaccines and molecules to fight diseases, healthcare and prevention and cure for diabetes,'' he said.

The Platform should also address issues like convergence of technologies, fusion between hardware and software, transportation bottlenecks, renewable energy, environmental degradation, human resource development, Dr Kalam added.

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