Telangana: Dr.Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog, New Delhi addressed the All India Services and Central Services officers attending the 92nd Foundation Course on “New India @ 2022” atDr. MCR HRD Institute of Telangana on November 29th, 2017. Sri S Niranjan Reddy, Vice-Chairman, Telangana State Planning Board, Sri A KGoel, IAS (Retd,), Advisor to Government, Planning & Energy, Dr. GR Reddy, IES (Retd.), Advisor to Government, Finance, Sri B P Acharya, IAS, Spl. Chief Secretary & DG, Dr. MCR HRD Institute, and Dr. A K Jain, Advisor, NITI Aayog also graced the occasion.
Dr. Rajiv Kumar said, with a sense of pride, that India is the only country in the world history which has registered worth-emulating growth simultaneously on social, economic, and political fronts. He stated that development should not be an elite and urban areas-centred activity and called upon all the stakeholders to ensure that it turns out to be inclusive in nature and becomes a vibrant mass movement.
Continuing his address, Dr. Rajiv Kumar said that the Government has launched a number of innovative measures to provide greater momentum to achieve New India by 2022, which will be free from Poverty, Dirt & Squalor, Corruption, Terrorism, Caste, and Commensalism and thereby would emerge as a role model for rest of the world.
Dr. Rajiv Kumar said that the attention being given by the Government on the 200 most backward districts will go a long way not only on their multifaceted development but will also improve the overall performance of the country in terms of economic and social indicators of development. He opined that greater focus on the amelioration of the lot of the 10% of the population with the lowest per capita income will bring in its wake a number of beneficial outcomes. He said that a big boost to road and internet connectivity will be greatly instrumental in empowering them to get access to public services and grow out of the shadows of poverty. “The only way to double farmers’ income is to make them beneficiaries at each stage of the value-addition chain”, he urged. He underlined the importance of more allocation for R & D, greater use of Science & Technology in Agriculture, broad-based involvement of community in developmental initiatives, and availability of public services to poorer sections of society for meeting the aspirations of people, especially the youth.
Dr. Rajiv Kumar said that taking India to greater heights calls for a development-oriented, rather than a soft State, and called upon the Trainee Civil Servants to be prepared to contribute their mite tothe growth trajectory of India.He advised them to focus their attention on improving the infrastructure for health and education considering its multifarious benefits to poorer sections of society.
Dr. Rajiv Kumar said that the NITI Aayog is a completely different institution in terms of its vision and strategy. “The top-down approach of the erstwhile Planning Commission has been replaced by the bottoms-up strategy of the NITI Aayog”, he added.
Dr. Rajiv Kumar and Sri Niranjan Reddy gave away prizes to the winners in the completions conducted by the Management Circle of the 92nd Foundation Course. Sri Niranjan Reddyand Sri B P Acharya presented a Pochampally stole, a memento, and a copy of the Report on Socio-EconomicOutlook -2017 toDr. Rajiv Kumar.