The Hindu Business Line : Economy growth

This has reference to the article "The ever-elusive 8 per cent growth rate" (Business Line, August 24), which draws attention to the policies required in order to achieve the targeted 8 per cent growth.

But two vital considerations have been left out. One is unemployment, which is not due to dearth of skilled manpower but the lack of suitable opportunity.

Official statistics peg the numbers unemployed at 35 million, which is expected to increase to 50 million by the end of the Tenth Plan.

While nobody disputes the need for strengthening the manufacturing sector, if attention is not paid to the decentralised sector — which alone can create employment of the magnitude required — we would be triggering an unmanageable social problem.

The second omission in the article is food security. As much as we would like to claim that we are a foodgrains surplus country, we have nearly 300 million people living below the poverty line, who cannot even afford one square meal a day.

If we do not take concerted steps to increase foodgrain production, we will soon be sitting on a time bomb of social problems. With regard to agriculture, having already put the best productive land to use, India may have to concentrate on second-grade areas which have escaped attention during Green Revolution through programmes of watershed development, rain water harvesting and renovation of water bodies which have fallen into disuse. All of the above require massive credit flow to agriculture and the decentralised sectors.

R. H. Sarma

Mumbai

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