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105th Annual Session
: PHD Chamber
Growth on track despite
inflationary pressures, says FM No need for panic on
external flows.
 India
has weathered the global economic crisis quite well and is
poised to reach close to 9 per cent growth this year and
even double digit growth in the years to come with the
ministry of finance and the RBI working in tandem to pursue
a policy of fiscal consolidation, Finance Minister Mr Pranab
Mukherjee said here on Friday.
Addressing the 105th Annual session of the PHD Chamber in
New Delhi, which was on the theme of “Inclusive Growth thru
Skill Development – Vision 2017”, the Finance Minister said
the latest decision to ease liquidity despite inflationary
pressures and heavy foreign inflows was a tight balancing
act and would help us back on the growth trajectory. “I am
not unduly perturbed by the foreign institutional inflows
because they are manageable and there is no cause to press
the panic button right now.”
He said “there cannot be straightjacket formula out of the
crisis and the strategies have to be worked out in every
country in its respective prevailing economic condition.”
He said the theme of the meeting “is dear to my heart and
core to our economic development and social transformation”.
Growth, however high, would not be sustainable without skill
development. There is a perception that the benefits of
economic growth have not percolated down to the marginalised
and vulnerable sections. For this, the government has
launched six major flagship programmes
To take care of infrastructure, health, education,
employment and life security needs of the rural and poorer
people. The Unique Identification Authority of India and the
National Skill Development Mission too are part of this
multi-pronged approach towards inclusive development.
Referring to the National Skill Development Mission target
to skill/upskill 500 million people by 2022, the finance
minister said the Mission provided for a major role for
skill councils in the private sector and private sector
cooperation was crucial for meeting this target. Democratic
dividend is meaningless without skill development, he said.
“We need an economy that is globally competitive and allows
resource utilisation that is optimal and sustainable.”
The finance minister said he “attached the highest
importance to the crucial factor of human element” to solve
the myriad problems of this large economy since these would
need innovative and technological solutions. The private
sector and the government must work together to convert the
challenges into genuine opportunities.
The Finance Minister commended the PHD Chamber by saying
that “its constant innovativeness” in deciding its policy
and economic vision was what attracted him to the chamber.
Welcoming the Finance Minister, the PHD Chamber President,
Mr Ashok Kajaria said skill development, especially at the
grassroots level, was crucial to reap the benefits of the
democratic dividend and make the growth process inclusive
and scalable. To meet the NSDM target by 2022, it is
important to have a mid-way target of 250 million skilled
workforce by 2017. This has encouraged the chamber to
formulate its Vision 2017 and include skill development as
one of its focus areas from the current year. The Chamber is
empanelled as an assessing body with the Directorate General
of Employment and Training and has collaborated with four
institutes and has also set up a task force to ensure that
25 lakh workers are trained by 2017. However, grants instead
of soft loans from the NSDC would help more private players
to come forward in this area. Mr Kajaraia also asked for a
lower central sales tax rate of one per cent considering
that the introduction of the Goods and services tax had now
been postponed to 2012.
The annual session also saw the giving away by the Finance
Minister of the PHD Chamber’s annual awards for Good
Corporate Citizen to Eastman Cast and Forge Ltd, the
Distinguished Entrepreneurship Award to Mr N K Chaudhary,
CMD, Jaipur Rugs Company Pvt Ltd, the Outstanding
Businesswoman Award to Smt Priya Paul, Chairperson, Apeejay
Surrendra Park Hotels, the Award for Outstanding
Contribution to Social Welfare to the NGO Udayan Care, and
the Lifetime Achievement Award to Mr M M Sabharwal,
President Emeritus, HelpAge India.
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