Karamsad (Gujarat): Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani today (Oct 31) said India would shed its tag of "developing nation" and emerge as a "developed" country, provided elementary necessities like food, water, shelter and primary health of people are redressed totally.

"Prime Minister and the President have envisaged India as a developed nation by the year 2020 akin to US, UK and Japan. To realise this, it is important that every citizen has shelter, two-square meals a day and every village has potable drinking water, road connectivity and facilities for health," Advani said, inaugurating H M Patel Academic Centre in Karamsad.

Advani admitted that India has still not been able to fulfil these basic needs for all its citizens when all other nations have managed to do it.

On the tag of "developing nation", the DPM said, "We do not want the world to dub us as a developing nation. It is not a nice word to be used. Sometimes I feel it is used so that we are not hurt, but it implies that our country is still underdeveloped."

PTI