Special Plenary Address by

Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Hon'ble Prime Minister of India

at the
Asian Summit on 
Youth Entrepreneurship & Employment
30 October 2003
Balayogi Hall, Parliament House, New Delhi

I am pleased to be with all of you this afternoon. First of all, I would like to thank his Royal Highness, Prince of Wales for his gracious presence. Over the years he has lent his considerable personal stature to promote several worthy social causes worldwide. Conservation of architectural heritage is one of them. Innovative ways for supporting disadvantaged young people to better their lives through entrepreneurship and self-employment is another. Your Royal Highness you truly represent an enlightened royalty alive to the concerns modern world.

I would like to congratulate the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust & all other associate organisations for organising this conference on employment & entrepreneurship among the youth. The subject of unemployment is important not only for India but for the entire world, not only for the under developed & developing countries but also for all the developed countries.

The facts and figures on unemployment are truly staggering. Eradication of unemployment in general but especially youth unemployment has become the biggest developmental challenge in almost every country in the world. This shows that there is a serious failing and inadequacy in our economic systems.

The fundamental purpose of any economy is to meet human needs through the agency of human labour. It means that every able-bodied man and woman in the working age should get work. This is axiomatic as saying that every child in the school going age should get school children. Sadly, what is obvious has not yet become achievable.

Employment is not merely a means of livelihood for young people, it is also the enabler of discovery, self discovery & self development. Youth is the age when life is most creative and joyful. It is the age when idealism blooms and social consciousness is sharpened. It is when young people begin to dream and learn to struggle to realise those dreams. But all this is possible only if the minds and hands of young people are employed in gainful work. The large part of human resources in the world is lying idle due to large-scale unemployment.

Friends, the economic system in the world today exhibit too many stark paradoxes. On the one side there is so much waiting to be done, so many needs to be met in our societies, schools to be repaired, streets to be cleaned, wasteland to be greened, the homeless to be sheltered, the aged to be taken care of, and so on.

There are so many hands that can do these works, yet our economies and institutions do not seem to connect human needs and human labour to an adequate extent. The second paradox is this: the more capital intensive a production unit becomes, the less employment it generates. Yet our institutions, our credit agencies and our technology dissemination mechanisms are generally more geared to serving their needs rather than the needs of small and medium enterprises whose employment generation potential is much higher.

How do we address these two paradoxes? There are no simple answers. But one thing is obvious: both globally and locally we have to reorient our economic thinking, planning and implementation to achieve the goal of full employment everywhere. We should be prepared to reform anything that needs to be reformed to achieve its central goal, be it the global financial architecture, the world trade regime or the growth of laws and institutions at the national and local levels.

Another thing is obvious in developing countries including India. The mindset of young people wanting government jobs has to change. In the era of reforms, the role of the government has changed. Rather than being directly engaged in running enterprises the government has to facilitate the spirit of enterprise among the people.

I have noticed that the old mindset indeed is changing. Our young people are beginning to realise the solutions to the problems of unemployment lies mainly in entrepreneurship & self-employment. India offers vast scope for this - especially in the services sector both in urban & rural areas.

Often these small enterprises and self-employment initiatives spring up on their own. But with a little help from government institutions & credit agencies with a little formal training in entrepreneurship, with better market information and infusion of better technological inputs these very initiatives can turn into profitable ventures. And they can create a lot of employment opportunities in a decentralised, localised manner.

This is where the responsibility of the government lies. I believe we can achieve better and faster results through convergent functioning of various government departments, agencies, banks, financial institutions & educational institution. This is best seen in the success of well-managed women’s self help groups in different parts of our country.

We need to create a proper awareness among the youth about the various employment and self-employment schemes of the government and we have so many of them. If young entrepreneurs and self employed persons face any problems, it is the duty of concerned government officers and bank managers to quickly attend to these problems. Often, start up businesses of small entrepreneur’s fail and fold-up because of lack of support and guidance. It should be our endeavour to de-risk these initiatives as much as possible.

There is also a big scope for private sector investment in mentoring and fostering small enterprises in the informal sector through appropriate linkages. NGOs and producers co-operatives can provide these linkages.

No single country has gained all the necessary experience in doing things the right way. Yet there is a lot of useful worldwide experience and knowledge that countries need to share with one another. suggest that the planning commission together with the many organisations that have organised this Conference should take up documentation of best practices & success stories in the informal sector worldwide.

This information should then be widely disseminated. Friends, as you all know our government has taken many steps to create supportive infrastructure schemes and policies to speed up India’s economic development & to meet the aspirations of our young people. For example, we are making massive investment in improving road connectivity both highways and rural roads.

Telecom connectivity is expanding by leaps and bounds. This connectivity revolution is helping thousands of new entrepreneurs to set up business. An altogether new area where both entrepreneurship and employment opportunities is showing spectacular growth is in the IT & IT enabled services. Technological advances & compulsions of cost reduction is making more and more companies, offices and utilities in the West to outsource their services to India. In this context a recent report in a reputed British daily which has been reproduced in the Hindustan Times today describes the new phenomenon of outsourcing in a rather dramatic manner.

It says that the jobs that Britain took away from India 200 years ago are now being returned. Of course, there is a difference between them and now. Then it was a win-lose phenomenon now it is win-win game for both Britain and India. Your Royal Highness, I hope you will agree with me.

Change in India is visible not only in a high visibility sector like IT enabled services, entrepreneurship, employment and self-employment are also growing. India’s rural and semi driven economy. Here I would like to congratulate the Khadi and Village Industries Commission for its success in running the rural employment generation programmes. I am told that under the programme over 1.5 lakh small-scale production units have been set up by rural entrepreneurs.

They are part-financed by banks and partly through the government’s budgetary support. REDP has created a sustainable employment, not daily wage employment for nearly 18 lakh people in the past 5 years. We want to take this number to 40 lakhs in the next 5 years and adequate funds will be provided for this. The chairman of KVIC has written to me seeking a reduction in interest rates to rural entrepreneurs under REDP. This will be considered.

Our government is working towards the goal of creating 10 million employment and self employment opportunities each year. The SP Gupta committee set up by Planning Commission has prepared a useful report on how to achieve this goal. I would like the concerned ministries and departments to implement this employment strategy with utmost seriousness. State governments should also fully contribute to its successful implementation. However, this strategy cannot succeed through governmental action alone.

The private sector, banks, and financial institutions, Panchayati Raj institutions, NGOs, trade unions and all other sections of society will have to work closely with the Union and State governments. Together we have to take up eradication of unemployment as a mission. In carrying out this mission we have to learn from others around the world and also share our positive experiences with them. My congratulations to all the award winners and my best wishes for the Asian Summit on youth entrepreneurship and employment.

Thank you.

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