FM urges industry to set up ‘Knowledge Cell’

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram emphasised on the need for a “Knowledge Cell” to achieve and sustain double-digit economic growth rate...

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram emphasised on the need for a “Knowledge Cell” to achieve and sustain double-digit economic growth rate, adding that government would contribute for setting up of such a cell.

Addressing a special session on the occasion of 79th Annual General Meeting of Ficci here today in the city, the FM said, “Knowledge cell should be manned by outstanding resource persons, where ideas and knowledge could germinate. These could be used to create industrial and other products to effectively compete in world markets.”

He said, “Just increasing inflow of money would not help

alone. There is a need to use the knowledge available in India and outside the country. Our performance can be improved further by infusion of more knowledge.”

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He expressed his concern over under performance of some sectors including agriculture, food industry, paper & paper products, leather, chemicals, basic metals and machinery. The main reason for under performance of food industry was rise in the cost of input material.

Achieving the target of double digit growth rate would be more meaningful when fruits of growth reach more than 300 million people earning less than a dollar a day, he said.

The FM said that lack of investment in infrastructure and agriculture, inability to implement projects on time and investment of knowledge in India’s manufacturing and services sector were holding back rapid growth.

Justifying the central banks’ intervention to check increasing credit flow to housing and real estate sector, Chidambaram said, “Credit has been growing at over 30 per cent for 20 months now. If credit moderates, interest rates will come down, but for the moment they are where they are.”