Hyderabad: IT minister K.T. Rama Rao said that political parties and politicians in the country were always focused on winning elections than on development or creating wealth for future generations. That is why India was lagging behind developed countries, he said and cited the examples of China and Japan.
"India and China had almost similar GDPs in the 1980s. Now, China is an 18 trillion dollar economy and India is still a three trillion dollar economy. Japan, despite its geographical and topographical challenges, is the third largest economy," Rama Rao said.
“China and Japan excelled because they focused on development and India’s focus was on politics, creating rifts between various communities in the name of caste, religion etc to win elections." He was speaking at the inaugural of the three-day 25th National Human Resource Development Conference here on Thursday.
“We need to think whether the leadership of our nation is giving us the aspirations of being a 25 trillion dollar economy, besides how the wealth can be distributed equally among all sections," Rama Rao said.
Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments that "freebie culture" was bad, Rama Rao said, "One should remember that India is still a third world country and people from marginalised sections require government support."
Calling Hyderabad a city where 'paratha meets dosa', he said that if only the rest of India works like Telangana, things could change
rapidly for the better.
He stressed that the biggest challenge for a leader was not capital management but people management. Urging the organisers to invest in human capital, the minister said that the country's 'think force' was its biggest strength. "India is the youngest nation in the world and we must make the most of it by nurturing and engaging meaningfully. Development and welfare should go hand in hand," he said.
"The Telangana government focuses on innovation, infrastructure and inclusive growth. The state has focussed on sustainable growth — there has been a 7.7 per cent growth of green cover, which is a result of the third largest effort in human history," he stressed. He added that the Telangana government's skilling initiatives such as Telangana Academy of Skills & Knowledge (TASK) were leading the skilling initiatives in the state. He announced that the government would soon set up the largest life sciences university and an aviation university.
