• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Nov. 17

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Saturday said the Government would soon come up with measures to improve the conditions of farmers and hoped that India’s rate of poverty could be reduced to a single digit within a decade.

“In the coming weeks, we plan to take further steps to improve the condition of farmers,” the Prime Minister said, while addressing the All-India Congress Committee session here.

Dr Singh said that after a long gap the country has achieved an average agriculture growth rate of four per cent in the last three years, and added that it would be the government’s endeavour to maintain this in the future.

He said that if the overall economic growth of around 9 per cent per annum, which has been achieved in the past three years, was maintained it would be possible to reduce poverty to single digit figure within the next decade. Dr Singh also pointed out that the Government had managed to keep inflation under control despite price of crude touching $100 per barrel, besides the wholesale price index was rising by around 3-4 per cent, which was the lowest in 20 years.

Recalling the condition prevailing before the UPA Government took office, the Prime Minister said that communal tensions were at their peak throughout the country and attempts were being made to divide the people on the basis of religion, caste and language.

“Farmers were groaning under the burden of debt and in some States there were waves of suicides going on. The economic condition was not better either. Agriculture, rural areas, education, health care and backward regions were all neglected by the Government.

“All this was branded as ‘India Shining’. Shining for whom, shining for which region, shining for which class of people?”

More Stories on : Agriculture | Economy | Trends

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Tower cos line up to offer infrastructure to BSNL

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line