Pitroda: Indian diaspora needs to reach out to district level

Chennai, Jan 8 (PTI) Underscoring that development of
infrastructure in the country was a vital challenge, National
Knowledge Commission chief and US-based C-Sam Inc Chairman Sam
G Pitroda Thursday asked the Indian diaspora to reach out to
the district level in order to make the country a developed
nation.

Speaking at the plenary session 'India as an Emerging
Power: The Diaspora Factor' at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
here Thursday, he said, "We really need to reach out to the
district level to see what we can do in order to develop our
nation and these are our key elements to address."

He said that the concept of winning cricket matches or
making billions or creating box office Bollywood movies alone
would not make the country grow, but "we need to reach out to
the 400 million people who are living below the poverty
line.

"We have to give them sanitation, better lifestyle,
education, proper healthcare," he said, adding that the
development of infrastructure in the country was a vital
challenge.

He also announced that over the next few weeks, the
government will launch a programme on the social sector
development where the Indian diaspora will be able to connect
them with the Global Knowledge Network.

Stating that the Knowledge Commission website
(www.knowledgecommission.gov.in) has received around 250
recommendations on 27 varied subjects, he said, "We need to
create more human resources."

Earlier, Malaysian Indian Congress President Dato' Seri S
Samy Vellu in his address said, "In the wake of the global
economic meltdown, its right time for both Indian
businessmen's and their counterparts from the diasporas to
establish both its high level and working groups action
committees to review, exchange and promote business growth
periodically."

Citing that the Indian Business Process Outsourcing
industry was the first to be affected (due to the meltdown),
Vellu expressed concern that the Indian revenues in IT-enabled
services should have jumped to USD 16.94 billion by capturing
the 10 per cent of the global market, but it was unable to
do so.

"For achieving that the diaspora's, especially from the
South East Asia, can and should play a vital role in assisting
India to weather this setback," he said.

However, he was optimistic that despite the economic
slowdown, India will surpass the US 100 billion in less than
five years. "With a well established IT and other services,
India today stands to open other areas of advancement."

On the Indian automotive industry, he said by 2030, India
will become the world's third largest automotive market after
China and the US.

He also suggested that for the rural India to grow, urban
spending must increase. "As the supply chain strengthens,
urban demands will definitely boost the rural economy," he
said.

"India's retail sector which has a market size of USD 300
billion, of which barely 2-4 percent is in the organised
sector, this industry is likely to increase to 20 percent or
25 percent by 2010," Vellu added. PTI