The Hindu : Fernandes, Joshi for generating more jobs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 05, 2002

National

National

Fernandes, Joshi for generating more jobs

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 4. It was perhaps just a coincidence. But the day the new Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, took charge at North Block, two senior Ministers of the Vajpayee Government sought to write the economic script for him. The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, advocated a mix of `swadeshi' policies and technology to tackle unemployment.

Displaying traits of his socialist background and, at the same time, not wanting to sound as if he was debunking the Government's disinvestment policy, Mr. Fernandes said if the process was resulting in unemployment, the policy should be examined to find out what was intrinsically wrong with it. Delivering the inaugural address at a national conference on employment generation, organised by `Lok Manch', a non-party forum, he said the answer to unemployment was the promotion of small-scale and cottage industries, based on the `swadeshi' concept, and adoption of technology suited to local conditions.

Speaking to presspersons later, Mr. Fernandes said that while disinvestment as such was not improper, the Government should evaluate its `pros' and `cons.' Even affluent countries like France and Italy had put disinvestment on hold. And on downsizing, he sounded a note of cautious dissent saying it should be seen in what sector it was being carried out, and ensure that it did not result in the loss of employment generation.

Dr. Joshi, also a swadeshi enthusiast, stressed the need to innovate using inexpensive technology, and warned that "growth without employment is cancerous.''

Advocating the need to draw up plans for generating employment, he said the problem of unemployment should be dealt with in all seriousness.

While Dr. Joshi cited instances of average Indians and even school dropouts creating inexpensive tools for meeting their requirements, Mr. Fernandes stressed on the need to spread awareness among the people of the real power vested with them in a democracy.

Recalling the words of Jayaprakash Narayan, he said "Lok Shakti'' should act as a check on ``Raj Shakti.'' It was the small-scale industry and cottage industries, which employed more people. Similarly, of the Rs. 25,000-crore non-performing assets of banks, the share of small-scale industries was only Rs. 4,506 crores.

On reports that China was faced with the problem of unemployment, he said that all those who advocated the `Chinese model' should read the writing on the wall.

"Today, both India and China are in the same boat.''Among those who took part in the conference were the Mexican Ambassador to India, Julio Faesler Carlisle, the former Manipur Chief Minister, Radha Binod Koijam, S. S. Singhania, president, Indian Council of Small Industries, Ruddar Dutt, eminent economist, and S. P. Gupta, Planning Commission member, whose report on `targeting 10 million employment opportunities each year' in the 10th Plan, formed basis of discussions.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National