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Health and education sectors are in crying need of radical reforms, said Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd.
Mr Ambani, while giving the valedictory address at FICCI's 83rd Annual General Meeting, said, “Despite the growth in GDP numbers, we house 40 per cent of the world's poor. All through there have been successes in the last two decades, the health and education sectors are in crying need of radical reforms.”
He added that the outlay on health needs to increase by five times to ensure the health of young India. “Health spending in India is already getting skewed. Given our demographics, the accent cannot be limited to sustaining the diseases of the affluent and managing the old. We will need to radically transform healthcare delivery to all our people,” said Mr Ambani.
Commenting on education he said that there is a need to create necessary education infrastructure and environment of learning. “We should create universities as academic centres of excellence which will feature in the top 100 in the world. Achieving this will be one of the cornerstones of a new India that we will need to build. The Right to Education Bill and the Innovation University Bill are great steps in this direction,” said Mr Ambani.
Agriculture
The RIL Chairman also pointed out the large opportunity in agriculture. “India has about 13 per cent of the world's arable land. In the next 10 years there is an opportunity to add $500 billion year-on-year in this sector. Given the rising food prices, the time is opportune for India to invest in agriculture and try to become the food basket of the world,” he said.
He added that to change the low productivity of Indian agriculture modern farming methods and plant biotechnology need to be used. “Increasing productivity will require new water-saving micro-irrigation practices,” said Mr Ambani.
On manufacturing, Mr Ambani said that the sector will be redefined by technology. He also said that the industry has to carefully target export markets and focus on scale, technology and customer needs.
“Development of an export market necessitates a synergistic partnership between industry, Government and labour. It requires a commitment to the consumers to assure them best quality at affordable prices,” said Mr Ambani.
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