The Hindu Business Line : ‘Speed of growth key to TN meeting Vision 2025 targets’

Mr Gopal Srinivasan, Immediate past President, CII Tamil Nadu State Council, at a conference on `Vision 2025’ at the annual regional meeting of CII in Chennai on Monday. —

Our Bureau

Chennai, April 14 If Tamil Nadu has to meet the aspirations of the people over the next 15 years it is not just the scale of growth but the speed of growth that would be needed that is baffling, according to Mr Gopal Srinivasan, Immediate Past President, CII Tamil Nadu State Council.

Presenting the Tamil Nadu Vision 2025 at the Confederation of Indian Industry-Southern Region’s annual general meeting 2008, he said that the report, which outlines the aspirations of over 700 people, surveyed as part of a study to gauge what people expect of their State, deals with urbanisation, infrastructure, industrialisation, health, governance, rural development and education.

But the key point is that to meet the goals, the speed of growth that is demanded is on a scale that is unprecedented. To illustrate, Mr Srinivasan referred to the speed at which specific sectors would have to grow by 2025. Tamil Nadu would be among the most urbanised, with 70 per cent of the population living in the cities. This would be 1.5 times the present level and to meet their requirements, the speed of growth would have to be three times the current level.

The number of doctors graduating every year would have to triple but the speed of growth in capacity to meet this requirement would also have to triple. People expect farmers’ incomes to grow five times but the speed of growth needed to reach that target would have to be eight times the present level.

The report, summarising the demands placed on various sectors, calls for a five-fold growth in industrial and services output.

Industrialisation

Manufacturing and services sector are envisaged to contribute about Rs 1.8 lakh crore at current prices by 2025 — a five-fold growth over the current value. The realisation of such a target would involve fostering growth of SMEs through incubation hubs, clusters and skill development. The industry strategy would be to move up the value chain, generating 2.6 crore jobs, which would be mean that the number of vocational training institutes would have to quadruple, according to the report.

Health

The number of beds and doctors are envisaged to grow by five times, at four times the speed of their current growth. The State would have to focus on introducing health insurance, institutional development and greater budget allocation.

Governance is key to growth.

A reputation for responsiveness and transparency is a precondition, according to the report. Tamil Nadu would have to attain the benchmark set by Australia and Norway. This would involve e-governance, reengineering citizen’s services and decentralisation and outsourcing.

Agriculture growth would have to be through increasing yields, value added products and marketing and growth of agro-based industries, the report said.

Education would involve 100 per cent enrolment and graduation up to high school level with at least half the numbers continuing into college. Tamil Nadu would then have a base of 1.2 crore graduates and three crore trained and certified technicians. The number of institutions of higher education and vocational training would have to increase four times from the present level.

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