Tamil Nadu govt launches equitable growth initiative

The Tamil Nadu government has launched equitable growth initiative identifying six critical development objectives. The World Bank will provide its cross-country expertise and global best practices in this initiative.

A Tamil Nadu government press statement said that the core groups will deliberate on the problems and work out possible solutions for consideration and adoption by the government over the next nine to 12 months.

With an unprecedented boom in the information technology (IT), IT enabled services (ITeS) and business process outsourcing segments witnessing a boom, the demand for specific skills is outstripping the supply.

J Jayalalithaa, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, said that this makes it necessary to focus on the schooling system and the entire gamut of interventions in vocational education, to provide people with skills for the new emerging market.

As a part of this equitable growth initiative, all aspects of vocational education will be gone into in detail as students completing their education from schools and colleges are readily equipped to meet the ever increasing demand of the new market.

The state government has also outlined a mix of outcome-oriented strategies for stepping up the growth momentum in the agriculture sector.

A comprehensive programme for crop diversification, precision farming and comprehensive wasteland development programme constitute the path to progress in the agriculture sector.

Availability of world-class infrastructure at affordable cost to the end users is essential for accelerating and sustaining the growth impetus for which a comprehensive framework of public-private partnership in infrastructure development should be undertaken, she added.

The annual development plan outlay of the state jumped from Rs 5,200 crore in 2001-02 to Rs 9,100 crore in 2005-06 and the capital investment outlay has almost increased three-fold to Rs 4,792 crore during the same period.

The Tamil Nadu equitable growth initiative will be a collaborative exercise involving the people and the government in strengthening the policy formulation process. This institutionalised system of interaction between the government, the citizens and experts is expected to impart solid foundations to the policy formulation process.

Jayalalithaa said that this help craft smart developmental strategies that would empower the poor, to obtain proportionately larger shares of the incremental growth in the state's economy, thus facilitating equitable growth.