India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, said on Wednesday that national security would most certainly be affected, if the pace of economic growth was not increased. Addressing the nation on the occasion of the country's 65th Independence Day from the ramparts of the historic 17th century-built Red Fort, Dr. Singh, while acknowledging that India has been affected by the global economic meltdown, said that internally the country and its government could accept challenges and work unitedly for economic growth and creation of new employment opportunities. "If we do not increase the pace of the country's economic growth, take steps to encourage new investment in the economy, improve the management of government finances and work for the livelihood security of the common man and energy security of the country, then it most certainly affects our national security," said Dr. Singh. He added: "You are aware that these days the global economy is passing through a difficult phase. We cannot do much about the conditions that prevail outside our country. But we must make every effort to resolve the problems inside our country so that our economic growth and the creation of employment opportunities in the country are again speeded up." "I believe that this period of difficulties will not last long. Even as we face these problems, we should be encouraged by the fact that we have achieved extraordinary successes in many areas in the last eight years. We now need to replicate these successes in newer areas," Dr. Singh further added. Lauding the success of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Act (MGREA), the Prime Minister said: "Today, one out of every five households in the country has become eligible to benefit from the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Act through a job card. In only the last one year, we have provided employment to more than eight crore people under this scheme." He said that his government has announced new measures to accelerate infrastructure development. "Ambitious targets have been fixed in roads, airports, railways, electricity generation and coal production. The government will take steps to increase investment for infrastructure development with the help of the private sector," Dr. Singh said. He added: "To attract foreign capital, we will have to create confidence at the international level that there are no barriers to investment in India ." On the need for rural India to save hard earned money, Dr. Singh said: "Just ten years back, only three out of every ten households in our villages were benefitting from banking services. Today, more than half of the rural households get the benefit of bank accounts. It will be our endeavour to ensure that all households benefit from bank accounts in the next two years."

National security will be affected if economic growth is not achieved: PM