The Hindu Business Line : `Create knowledge partnership directory'

The President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, talking to Mr Y.C. Deveshwar, CII President and Chairman, ITC, at the inauguration of the Partnership Summit 2006 in Kolkata on Tuesday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Kolkata , Jan. 17

URGING corporate India to work ceaselessly towards global competitiveness, utilising the extant knowledge-capabilities in the nation, the President, Mr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, asked the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to create a "Partnership Directory", starting with all the knowledge partnerships entered into by Indian companies with global firms on the technology front, beginning 2000.

He said this would put us in the Mission Mode programme for completing the massive `Bharat Nirmaan' programme taken up by the Government.He sought the creation of a partnership-oriented knowledge database, as a reference point for all future endeavours on the technology front to make India a developed nation by 2020. The President urged the private entrepreneurs to strive for greater international partnerships.

Mr Kalam was speaking after inaugurating the 4th three-day CII Partnership Summit 2006 on the theme "Shaping growth: Nurturing Development".

Calling for creative leadership in theindustry, Mr Kalam said all developmental activities towards Bharat Nirmaan have to center around the concept of provision of urban amenities in rural areas(PURA) and a national electronic connectivity.

Urging private entrepreneurs to take the initiative for achieving a 10 per cent GDP growth rate within the next decade, Mr Kalam elaborated on the "law of development", which pivoted around the need to ignite the 540 million young minds of India to "blend our strengths in agriculture, manufacturing and the services sectors for global competitiveness."

It is not enough to produce a quality product, but we must also learn how to market it effectively in the global marketplace, he pointed out. "Our age-old value systems should be embedded in our economic prosperity."

He said all efforts towards our "Bharat Nirman" programme haveto focus on the need to reduce this rural-urban divide to a thin line, and "that is the basic concept behind the PURA programme".

The President said the PURA development through partnership can be achieved through a rural connectivity model putting public-private partnerships as the centre-piece of this electronic connectivity.