Former Prime Minister of India - Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee

PM's address at the Asian Summit on Youth Entrepreneurship & Employment

~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 of 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 of the modern world.

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

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 as axiomatic as saying that every child in the school-going age should get school education.

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 and 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 realize their dreams.

But all this is possible only if the minds and hands of young people are employed in gainful work. Thus, a large part of human resources in the world is lying idle due to large-scale unemployment – unable to contribute to society and unable to achieve self-growth.

Friends, the economic systems in the world today exhibit two stark paradoxes. On the one side, there is so much work 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 also 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 re-orient 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 this central goal – be it the global financial architecture, the world trade regime, or the growth-obstructing laws and institutions at national and local levels.

Another thing is also obvious. In developing countries, including in 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 to grow.

I have noticed that the old mindset is indeed changing. Our young people are beginning to realize that the solution to the problem of unemployment lies mainly in entrepreneurship and self-employment.

India offers a vast scope for this, especially in the services sector, both in urban and rural areas. Often, these small enterprises and self-employment initiatives spring up on their own. But with a little help from governmental institutions and credit agencies, with a little formal training in entrepreneurship, with better market information, and infusion of appropriate technological inputs, these very initiatives can turn into profitable ventures. And they can create a lot of employment opportunities in a decentralized, localized manner.

This is where the responsibility of the government lies. I believe that we can achieve better and faster results through a convergent functioning of various government departments, agencies, banks, financial institutions and educational institutions. 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 entrepreneurs 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’ cooperatives can provide these linkages.

In all these efforts, no single country has gained all the necessary experience in doing it the right way. There is a lot of useful worldwide experience and knowledge that countries need to share with one another. I suggest that the Planning Commission, together with the many organizations that have organized this conference, take up documentation of the best practices and 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 and to meet the aspirations of our young people.

For example, we are making massive investments 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 businesses.

An altogether new area where both entrepreneurship and employment opportunities are showing spectacular growth is IT and IT-enabled services. Technological advances and compulsions of cost-reduction are 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 two hundred years ago are now being returned!

Of course, there is a difference between then and now. Then it was a win-lose phenomenon. Now it is a win-win game for both Britain and India. Your Royal Highness, I hope you 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 in India’s rural and semi-urban economy. Here I would like to congratulate the Khadi & Village Industries Commission (KVIC) for its success in running the Rural Employment Generation Programme. I am told that under this 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. REGP has created sustainable employment – not daily wage employment – for nearly 18 lakh people in the past five years. We want to take this number to 40 lakh in the next five years. 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 REGP. This will be considered.

Our Government is working towards the goal of creating ten million employment and self-employment opportunities each year. The S.P. Gupta Committee, set up by the 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 experience with them.

My congratulations to all the award winners. And my best wishes for the Asian Summit on Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment.

Thank you.~