The Hindu Business Line : `Bombay Plan still relevant'

THE Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, shared his thoughts on the relevance of the `Bombay Plan' in the current scenario while delivering the inaugural address at the JRD Tata centenary celebration on Tuesday.

"As a student of economics in the 1950s and later as a practitioner in Government, I was greatly impressed by the Bombay Plan of 1944. In the conceptualisation of this document, JRD played an exceedingly important role, along with GD Birla, Purushottamdas Thakurdas, Ardeshir Dalal and John Mathai," he said.

"When we read it today, nearly 60 years later, we see how relevant many of the central propositions of the Bombay Plan remain. In those days it was an unprecedented document. It is worthy of emphasis that nowhere in the developing world has a group of businessmen come together to draw up such a long-term plan for a country."

"The plan defined the framework for India's transition from agrarian feudalism to industrial capitalism, but capitalism that is humane, that invests in the welfare and skills of the working people," Dr Singh said.

"We have come a long way since the days of the Bombay Plan. Many of the `prerequisites' of industrialisation and modernisation have been put in place. However, in order to realise our full growth potential, we need to pay much more attention to the expansion and modernisation of our social and economic infrastructure, to increase investment in education and health and to the creation of capability that make us globally competitive."

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