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Journalism of Courage
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam inaugurated the India International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan today, pitching a ten per cent annual economic growth target for the country.
Asking the Indian industry to increase its global share by focussing on competition, Kalam lauded the ITPO’s trade fair theme of ‘Tourism and Small and Medium Enterprises’ for creating employment avenues, a key factor for economic growth.
Kalam stressed the need for a ‘Welcome Tourists Movement’ and exploration of the tourism opportunities in the uninhabited islands of Andamans, Nicobar and Lakshwadeep. ‘‘To double GDP growth from five to 10 per cent, management systems need to tap the tourism industry,’’ he said.
He also highlighted India’s sea connectivity advantage and growth of IT, saying these need to be improved further to achieve the developed country status by 2020.
Defining the dynamics of development as consisting of eight developed nations and developing countries competing to achieve the same status, Kalam stressed the need for competitiveness. He named quality, cost-effectiveness and just-in-time supply as a mantra for global success.
