Tackle social sector for growth: Swraj Paul

Britain's business ambassador Lord Swraj Paul has said mere globalisation and setting up of industries alone cannot reduce a country's poverty. What is required is raising the level of the economy of the people with emphasis on social sectors, the NRI industrialist has said.

Lord Paul, who is leading a British parliamentary delegation here, today said India, with about 270 million people below the poverty line and 30 per cent children not getting even primary level education, needed to give these issues immediate attention. India has the potential to be classified as a developed economy but social sector issues have to be attended to, he added.

Saying that the British delegation was extremely delighted to meet President APJ Abdul Kalam, he added: "India is lucky to have a person of his calibre as the president who has great vision for the people and the country. As a president, he is a message for the world."

On terrorism, Lord Paul said, "Terror is a worldwide phenomenon which cannot be controlled by a heavy hand or by the army. There is need for identifying its root cause and finding a solution to contain it."

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said Britain and India, with their experience of facing terror, will jointly work together to find a solution to contain it, he informed.

On terrorism from across the border, Lord Paul said former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had started a "great" dialogue with Pakistan on the menace and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was carrying it forward to find a solution.

He recalled that when more than a year ago he met Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistan president had shown his keenness for finding a solution to problems affecting the relationship between the two countries.

The parliamentary delegation is here to study the functioning of state assemblies under an exchange programme. The delegation was highly impressed with the efforts made by India to eradicate poverty and the thrust given on raising education, he said.