Identifying tardy implementation and corruption as the major impediments for progress, President Pratibha Patil on Monday emphasised on the need for systemic accountability in her address to the nation on the eve of the 61 st Republic Day.
Patil also took note of the rising prices of foodgrain, an issue that is being raised with some agitation by parties of the Opposition as well as some in the ruling UPA. She underlined the need for a second Green Revolution focused on increasing agriculture productivity.
In her 20-minute speech that reflected on the career of India?s constitutional democracy, she said the next big target was to take the country on a double digit growth path while persisting with policies that will make growth equitable and sustainable. ?Empowering the poor and the disadvantaged, enabling them to move up the economic ladder, to join the ranks of the prosperous, is a task that must be accomplished by all of us. Women need to be made full and equal partners,? she said.
Pointing out that the next decade would be the ?deciding decade, the decade of reckoning? for India, the President said the need now was to draw a roadmap to inclusive growth that provides quality education and access to good health care to all citizens, along with job opportunities. This in turn, she said, would create a human resource base of knowledge workers and skilled workforce that will inject dynamism into the economy, broad-base manufacturing industries and strengthen agriculture and allied sectors.
Development, said Patil, must be holistic. ?The number of bridges, roads, harbours as well as our power generation capacity and transport facilities among others, require extensive additions,? she said. ?But do not forget that along with these structures of cement, steel and mortar, it is also important to bridge our differences, build roads to connect hearts and minds, harbour compassion, generate goodwill towards all and transport these feelings to strengthen the unity of the nation?.
Strongly advocating greater synergy between the corporate world and the agriculture sector, the President said the ?possibility of win-win partnerships between industry and agriculture should be explored?. Locating food processing industries close to agricultural areas had transformed the country?s rural landscape, she said.