The Hindu Business Line : Globalisation sans rural uplift will spell ruin: Aiyar

Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Panchayati Raj, flanked by Prof Gunter Rinsche (left), Board Member, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Germany, and Mr Y. K. Modi, President, FICCI, at a seminar in the Capital on Wednesday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Nov. 17

THE Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, on Wednesday cautioned against the mindless adherence to excessive focus on development for the urban elite and warned that the consequences of neglect of the rural populace in the march towards globalisation would spell trouble for the Indian economy.

Inaugurating the two-day `Economic Forum on India and China as Centres of Globalisation,' jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAF) here, Mr Aiyar advised the industry to act as a hub between the demands of globalisation and the imperative needs of the countryside.

The continued neglect of the aspirations of the rural producing and consuming class, he said, would conspire to keep the permeation of the forces of globalisation and localisation at bay.

Responding to the observations made by the FICCI President, Mr Y.K. Modi, the Minister said: "We need to emulate the Chinese model and buckle the rural hinterland with urban metros via the elected representatives of the Panchayati Raj institutions in villages."

Mr Aiyar noted that despite having distinctly different processes of decision-making, resource endowments and the pace of growth, both China and India had emerged as major international players. But that, he pointed out, was more due to "arithmetical accident," given the size and population of the two countries, rather than real prosperity.

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