With India’s growth sliding down to below seven per cent in the third quarter of the current financial year, President Pratibha Patil’s speech to the joint sitting of the Parliament on the opening day of the Budget Session on March 12 is likely to focus more on the challenges before the country’s economy and measures to be taken by the government to successfully deal with them.
The Union Cabinet at its special meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence on Friday approved the text of the presidential speech to be delivered in the Central Hall of the Parliament.
Confirming the decision sources close to the meeting revealed that the Union Cabinet took up the speech “paragraph by paragraph” and approved it.
“One of the major highlight of the speech will be to explain the government’s intention and wherewithal to provide livelihood to burgeoning young population of India along with measures to be taken to withstand the impact of the global economic crisis, particularly in the Euro zone,” sources said. According to an estimate, India will have 59 per cent of its population in the age group of 18-40 by 2020 and the country needs to prepare for providing employment to approximately 75 million people. “For the purpose, the President in her speech is expected to highlight the initiatives taken and to be taken by the government to ensure that a lot of employment and employability are generated,” sources said.
They further said that “skill development mission”, “last mile optical fibre connectivity to each village panchayat” and the “adhaar numbers based on UID” are going to be flagged in the speech.
Energy security is going to be another area on which the President is expected to put a lot of focus, as power is the primary pre-requisite for growth and growth is essential for sustaining growing social and economic demand.
The President is also expected to outline the government’s approach to give further fillip to the reforms so as to push growth.