The Hindu Business Line : Centre collating data on underdeveloped districts

Mumbai, Dec. 25 The Union Government will resort to specific policy intervention for districts with chronic unemployment and industrial underdevelopment, said Dr Ashwani Kumar, Minister of State in the Union Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

Talking to Business Line, Dr Kumar said the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion is collating the data on these districts. It would be based on 16 reports of the Planning Commission, some of which date back to the 1960s.

He said that causes of unemployment and industrial underdevelopment vary from district to district. There would be intervention from the Government to solve problems like law and order, connectivity, availability of raw material, and power supply, Dr Kumar said.

Out of the total of 700 districts, about 170 are acutely underdeveloped, of which 70 per cent are in the eastern part of the country.

Focus plans

Dr Kumar added that the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme and Bharat Nirman initiative would be focussed in these districts. Stress would be on developing textiles, leather and food processing industry in these districts, he said.

“We need blue collar jobs and industrial development in the hinterland, all of which will come from industrial and manufacturing activity. It also needs skill upgradation. Of the global population below 24 years of age, about 20 per cent stays in India but a majority of them are unemployable. To counter this problem, the Government is coming up with 1,500 centres of excellence for vocational training,” Dr Kumar said.

Import duties

Dr Kumar also said that the hardening of the rupee and interest rates has hurt exports and industrial production. A major chunk of the portability is threatened. Therefore, by March 2008, the Government would consider abolishing duties or drastic reduction in duties on imported material, which are used for manufacturing export items, he said.

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