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July 2011
India seeks equitable development and inclusive growth: PM
Prime Minister Dr.
Manmohan Singh addressed
the inaugural session of the
Conference of State
Ministers of Welfare and Social Justice
on June 17. Speaking on the occasion,
Dr. Singh said ensuring equitable development
of all sections of society, particularly
the weaker sections, was central
to the Government’s agenda of inclusive
growth. Minister for Social Justice
and Empowerment, Mukul Wasnik,
gave the Welcome Speech, and Minister
of State for Social Justice and
Empowerment, D. Napoleon, delivered
the vote of thanks.
Excerpts from the Prime Minister’s
speech on the occasion: “I am very happy to be in your midst
today at the inaugural session of the
Conference of State Ministers of
Welfare, Social Justice and
Empowerment. Ensuring equitable
development of all sections of society,
particularly the weaker sections, is central
to the Government’s agenda of
inclusive growth.
The success of our work will be
measured in how far we are able to bring
succour to our sisters and brothers of
the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes,
other backward classes (OBC), differently-
abled and senior citizens.
Although successive governments have
made progressive laws which protect the
basic rights and dignity of those of us
who are disadvantaged in one way or
another, the real question is how to
implement and enforce these laws effectively,
and back them up with adequate
amount of resources. It is imperative
that we implement the Protection of
Civil Rights Act, 1955, and the
Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe
(Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. We
need to ensure that meetings of the
Vigilance-cum-Monitoring
Committees at the state and district
levels are held regularly. I have written
on this subject to all the Chief Ministers.
I do hope that the State Welfare
Ministers will solemnly implement the
letter and spirit of these Acts. At the
same time, I invite you to take full
advantage of central assistance which is
available for this purpose, and which
includes setting up of larger number of
exclusive special courts for speedy trial
of such offences.
One of the darkest blots on our
development process is the fact that even
after 64 years of independence, we still
have the heinous practice of manual
scavenging. Today, I would like you to
pledge that this scourge will be eliminated
from every corner of our country
in the next six months.
The Ministry of Home Affairs’ recent
advisories that employing a person of
scheduled caste or scheduled tribe as a
manual scavenger to carry human excreta
would be punishable under Section
3 of the Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of
Atrocities) Act is a strong and prohibitive
instrument in your hands.
The Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme
for scheduled caste students was revised
in July, 2010. Education, health-care,
and skill development are the three very
important requisites of empowering
disadvantaged sections of our
community. And therefore, great importance
is attached to the provision of
scholarships.
Continued on Page 2
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India aims GDP growth of over 9 percent
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has
stressed on the need to sustain and pursue
the efforts currently underway to reform
the international and national policy regimes for
better managing the forces of globalisation, in serving
the collective well-being of the people. He was
speaking after inaugurating the National Banking
Conclave organised by ASSOCHAM on the
theme “Challenges and opportunities in a Trillion
Dollar Economy” on June 17 in New Delhi.
Finance Minister Mukherjee said that India
had been more fortunate in surviving the global
crisis and the economic slowdown of 2008
without major disruptions. “Our major challenge
in the short-term is inflation, which has
implications of sustaining our growth momentum,”
he said.
Mukherjee stated that in the past few weeks the
government had taken measures to address inflation
concerns. The monetary policy had been
gradually tightened and at the same time new initiatives
were announced in the Budget to address
some of the bottlenecks in the food supply chain
that were behind the inflationary spikes in 2010-
11. He expressed hope that India should be able
to repeat the growth performance of 2010-11 in
2011-12 as well.
The Finance Minister said that the mediumterm
growth prospects of the economy remained
buoyant. He stated that the country needed to
aim at a GDP growth of 9 to 9.5 percent for the
twelfth Five-Year Plan period. Mukherjee said
that the government was in the process of deepening
policy reforms in the financial sector and
addressing gaps in the overall economic regulatory
architecture.
In the Budget proposals for 2011-12, a significant
legislative agenda for the financial sector was
outlined.
Continued on Page 2
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