News: '10 pc Indian growth target realistic'

(DNA 18/04/2006) New Delhi - A day after the Supreme Court's verdict on rehabilitation in the controversial Narmada Dam project, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday asked the industry to pay more attention to people displaced by industrialisation and urbanisation to avoid confrontation.

“We need to quickly evolve a credible mechanism whereby these issues do not generate into confrontations between sections of our society...development is not pursued as threat to people's lives and habitats," Singh said after inaugurating Confederation of Indian Industry's annual session.

Asking Indian industry to pay closer attention to environmental consequences of industrial development, he said: “You must pay more attention to the rehabilitation of people displaced by the spread of industrial activity and by urbanisation.”

However, he said that the government was committed to pave the way for 12 per cent growth in the manufacturing sector, which is a must for attaining a 10 per cent economic growth.

“As I look ahead, I feel that we can not only sustain the current rate of economic growth of around 8 percent but can realistically hope to target a rate of 10 percent,” he said.

Addressing the annual conference of Confederation of Indian Industry, Singh said: “Our endeavour will be to create a policy framework that can deliver an annual rate of growth of manufacturing output of at least 12 percent.”

He said the government was committed to address problems being faced by the Indian industry to make it globally competitive and achieve a higher economic growth rate.

"Only manufacturing sector can provide enough jobs required to absorb the vast number of people who move out of agriculture," he said.

The country needed a credible macro-economic environment, better infrastructure and supportive political and social conditions to achieve higher industrial growth, he added.

Singh said the government would pursue labour sector reforms for greater flexibility in the labour market in the times to come even as he urged the captains of industry to diversify employee profile to bridge the socio-economic gaps.

“I urge you to give more attention to questions of social and economic discrimination and deprivation," he said adding that ‘affirmative’ action on the part of industry could play a crucial role in building up of an inclusive society.