The Hindu Business Line : PM outlines economic growth plan — Focus to be on infrastructure development

SOUNDING CONFIDENT: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, after addressing the nation from the Red Fort on the 58th Independence Day on Monday. Also seen is his wife, Ms Gursharan Kaur. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Aug. 15

IN keeping with his last year's declaration that "I have no promises to make but only promises to keep," the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, today presented the nation with the Government's action plan for achieving rapid economic growth through investments in infrastructure, rural development, and urban renewal.

Addressing the nation from the Red Fort on Independence Day, Dr Singh said that economic growth was intrinsically linked to the availability of infrastructure, particularly Railways, roads, and power.

Rail modernisation: Consequently, the Government had prepared a rail modernisation programme that would make the Railways one of the best in the world. Besides, dedicated freight corridors would be developed between Delhi and Kolkata and Delhi and Mumbai at an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore.

Simultaneously, the development of national highways was progressing at a rapid pace and work had begun on an additional 30,000 km, along with six-laning of the Golden Quadrilateral.

To encourage civil aviation, world-class airports are being constructed in many cities while seaports were being modernised and new ones being built.

Power shortage: The Prime Minister identified shortage of electricity as a major inconvenience and stressed the need to increase power generation rapidly. He reiterated the point that except for the poorest sections of society, giving electricity free of cost to other sections would worsen the financial condition of the electricity utilities.

"We need to get used to paying a reasonable price for electricity just as we do for petroleum products," he said.

Referring to his recent US visit, Dr Singh said that he had managed to eliminate some of the constraints that had been hampering the growth of India's nuclear energy programme; in the next 10 years, 40,000 MW could be generated through nuclear energy in addition to the 1,50,000 MW capacity being added in the thermal and hydro sectors.

Labour welfare: Industrial production and labour welfare also came in for comment. Pointing to the fact that industrial production had exceeded 10 per cent in May this year, Dr Singh said: "I would like to congratulate all our workers for this magnificent result. The Government will pay specific attention towards addressing problems of the workers, particularly those in the unorganised sector.

"However, I would like to emphasise that workers too have a responsibility. Wherever they may be working, in factories or in firms, they should work in co-operation with the management so that profitability of enterprises increases and they also benefit from this."

Urbanisation: On urban renewal, the Prime Minister said that one-third of the population lived in urban areas today and with the speed at which urbanisation was taking place, very soon 50 per cent of India's population would be living in urban areas.

"We will be investing in urban areas and for this, a National Urban Renewal Mission has been launched."

Dr Singh also referred to the growth in agriculture not being at the required pace and listed out the steps taken to alleviate the problems of the farmers. He hoped that in the coming years, agricultural growth would become rapid and the country would see a new green revolution. "We are fully committed to achieving this."

Rural development: As for rural development, he mentioned the Bharat Nirman programme launched by the Government under which one crore hectares of unirrigated land would irrigated; all villages with population of 1,000 or more and hilly areas with a population of 500 or more would be connected by roads; two-and-a-half crore houses would be given electricity connections and over 60 lakh houses would be built in villages.

Building ties: On relations with neighbours, the Prime Minister said that the recently concluded trade agreement with Singapore was a major step in improving economic engagement in the region. "We will be entering into many more such agreements in future."

About China, he said that India was ready and willing to deepen its trade and cultural relations with that country for the benefit of the two nations. The agreement arrived at between the two countries in April had paved the way for a closer relationship, he added.

"Our country is witnessing unprecedented economic growth at this point of time. Last year, our economic growth rate was 7 per cent and it is likely to be similar this year as well. Our country has never witnessed such consistently high growth rates in the past. I am confident that if we maintain this momentum of growth for the next 5-10 years, it would be possible for us to eradicate poverty, ignorance, hunger, and disease from our country. This is not a dream but something that is possible in our times."

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