The Hindu Business Line : Help develop rural India, says Sunil Mittal

India’s growing at 9 per cent every year and would become a $35-trillion economy before 2040. Perceptions of India have changed the world over and it is today a confident country, said the CII President, Mr Sunil Mittal, addressing the Prasar Bharatiya Divas in New York on Sunday, where the $10-million ‘Incredible India@60’ campaign was inaugurated.

But all optimistic and robust projections of India’s development could be derailed by one area – social and income inequalities. Both were areas that needed to be addressed and CII had already put in motion some plans to work along with the Government of India on the areas of education and skill sets.

Making a passionate plea to move education to another level, Mr Mittal said the next 10 years are going to be crucial for Indian education.

At present, India has 300 million children in the age of 6 to 16 and in 10 years they will become 16 to 26 and would be knocking on the doors of employment. “If they are going to be skilled and educated, they can become a global workforce. If we don’t fix that problem, the problems back home will rise, including a rising crime graph.”

Infrastructure was another area where attention was needed; roads ports and airports. “Fortunately, some modern airports are being developed but we are going to need many more in the coming years. But even more important is going to be the area of rural development.”

With 600 million people engaged in agricultural activity, a colossal effort is required to develop rural India, he said.

Inviting the Indian-American community to “develop the Indian agricultural space”, Mr Mittal said a lot of work needs to be done in the area of agricultural produce such as cold chain, packaging and processing, transportation.

At present, the remittance from overseas Indian was at around $30 billion. “India beckons all of you to raise the bar beyond the remission matrix to some serious investment, as Indian markets can consume your investment.”

Instead of keeping their savings for a modest return of a mere 4 to 5 per cent, their savings invested in India could get them much better returns, he added.

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