Tuesday, January 25 2005 19:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Calling for an action plan for employment generation, President A P J Abdul Kalam today (Jan 25, 2005) said an additional 76 million jobs could be created in the next five years if various schemes are taken up under a "Mission Mode" in sectors like textile, healthcare and wasteland development.

In his address to the nation on the eve of the 56th Republic Day, Kalam highlighted the need for launching missions in the areas of agriculture and food processing, education and health care, information and communication technology, infrastructure development and self-reliance in critical technologies leading to transforming India into a developed nation by 2020.

The President said bio-fuel, water harvesting and recycling, bamboo mission, converting fly ash as a wealth generator and village knowledge centres as other areas, which could generate employment avenues.

Observing that he had met more than six lakh children from all parts of the country and during interaction with them, they posed a series of questions "will I get proper employment and be able to contribute to India, to make it a Developed Nation", the President said, "Their questions really made me think and think".

"The only answer to retain the smile from the child to the youth is to generate employment. It represents the aspirations and anxiety of nearly 540 million youth of our nation," he said.

Kalam said the schemes identified by him have the potential to generate about 56 million direct employment during the next five years. He said this does not include other employment avenues in the Government and the private sector.

"Together, creating 76 million jobs in the next five years looks feasible if only we take up each of these schemes in mission mode," he stressed.

On Tsunami

Referring to the recent tsunami tragedy, he said, "While we are saddened by the wrath of the tsunami waves, we are not disheartened".

The President said reviews have been taken by Prime Minister, Governors and Chief Ministers of the affected States and the Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

On Employment pattern

"Now, I feel that the time has come, for me to join you, my fellow citizens, to study the process of reconstruction of homes and bringing back normalcy".

Observing that there has been considerable change in the employment pattern, the President noted that percentage of people employed in agriculture has come down from 64 to 54.

Simultaneously, there has been increase from 15 to 19 per cent in the manufacturing sector and 20 to 27 per cent in the service sector, he said.

"This trend has to continue and by 2020 our employment pattern should aim at 44 per cent in agriculture, 21 per cent in manufacturing and 35 per cent in service sectors," he said.

Kalam expressed confidence that the country would be able to put all its think tanks together and come up with many innovative wealth-generating schemes for the productive employment of 76 million people.

On Bio-Fuel

Advocating bio-fuel generation, he said there were nearly 63 million hectares of wasteland available in the country of which 33 million hectares have been allotted for tree plantation.

Bio-fuel plants grown in 11 million hectares could yield a revenue of Rs 20,000 crore a year and provide employment to over 12 million people both for plantation and running of extraction plants.

It will reduce foreign exchange outflow for import of crude oil, cost of which was continuously rising in the international market, he said.

Touching on wasteland development opportunities, the President said, ICRISAT with its international experience of working in arid regions has developed short duration, disease and drought resistant varieties of important crops beneficial to the farmers.

This involves introduction of various tillage practices and nutrition management techniques, to boost crop yields even under drought stress.

Kalam said this technology would pave the way for reclaiming five more million hectares for productive farming and deployment of 15 million people for dry land cultivation.

Emphasising that water harvesting should become mandatory for all, he said, if rural areas were made to have operational water bodies, recharging of wells would take place.

Since this task was totally labour intensive, its nation wide implementation of this scheme would provide employment for six million persons for more than three to four years.

On Bamboo Mission

The President dwelt at length on 'Bamboo Mission' envisaging an integrated programme of expansion of plantations of the Bamboo species, scientific management and promotion of community level value addition and entrepreneurship.

He said this programme envisaged the cultivation of bamboo in over two million hectares and promotion of technology and networking for enhancing trade. This will lead to the creation of 8.6 million jobs and market opportunities worth over Rs 6,000 crore with an investment of Rs 2,600 crore.

The President stressed that full utilisation of the generating stock of fly ash would provide employment potential for three lakh people and result in a business volume of over Rs 4,000 crore.

It has been reported that agricultural increase of grains was around 15 per cent, green vegetables 35 per cent and root vegetables 50 per cent, when fly ash is mixed with soil, he said adding toxicity tests have proved that there was no toxic element due to fly ash.

On Textile

Observing that textile industry was very important for the economy, he said compared to the world average of 700 kg of seed cotton per acre, India produced only 350 kg per acre.

He said a raining programme launched for farmers has shown that with soil characterization, matching the cottonseed to the soil, water and fertilizer management had resulted in more than doubling in the average seed cotton yield.

On Healthcare

Terming healthcare as another employment a generating area he spoke of the innovative method in operation in certain states under which citizens pay Rs 10 each per month as an insurance premium.

Such an insurance cover should be able to provide treatment for all types of diseases including expensive open-heart surgery.

The President gave 10 suggestions under which the education system has to impart the spirit that "we can do it", rural development has to be a mission mode operation and banks have to provide hassle free loans to rural enterprises.