India Rural Business Summit
October 8-9, 2007, New Delhi

Welcome Address by Mr. Habil Khorakiwala, President, FICCI

Mr. Kamal Nath, Hon'ble Union Minister for Commerce & Industry
Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI,
Your Excellencies,
Members of the Industry and Academia,
Senior government representatives,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to deliver the welcome address at this extremely important conference that FICCI is organizing in partnership with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and several other key ministries of the government as well as the Planning Commission.

At the outset let me extend a hearty welcome to our Hon'ble Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr. Kamal Nath. As you all know, Kamal Nathji has been a constant source of inspiration for the entire business fraternity of India and it is under his able guidance that we are today seeing Indian business and commerce perform so ably in the global arena. Thank you, Sir, for kindly acceding to our request and for gracing this occasion.

Friends, many of you would have had the opportunity at some point or the other to attend and to address some of the programmes, which we in FICCI organize from time to time. This conference, I must admit, is quiet different in scope and in nature from the ones we normally organize from the Federation's side. In a way this is a first for us as well.

Sir, the focus of 'India Rural Business Summit' is to engage various stakeholders involved in the growth and development process in the country's hinterland and to come out, through a structured thought process, with a strategy that would give a boost to employment generation and entrepreneurial ventures in the rural areas.

Strengthening economic activity in the rural areas of the country has been a priority for the nation for a long time now. While the objective has been very clear, many a times in the past we were constrained by physical and financial resources in achieving the same. This, however, is no longer the case.

Today, we are at a high point of growth. And such high growth has given us the ability to devote significantly large amount of resources for rural development. However, it is not just the availability of resources that is the reason for a renewed thrust on rural development. It is the question of 'equity' in terms of distribution of the fruits of development that has brought to the fore the issue of rural development.

The absolute level of poverty has fallen and fallen quiet significantly during the post reform period - from 36% in 1993-94 to 21% in 2004-05. This shows that we have been able to lift a large proportion of our population out of the poverty trap during the 15 years.

However, we must realize that making people cross over from below poverty line to above poverty line is not an end that we seek to meet. We must also ensure that just as the income levels of people belonging to the middle and high income brackets is growing at a fast clip, so too the income levels of people belonging to the low income bracket should rise. If we fail to do this, the distribution pattern of income in the country would only get skewed.

For bringing in more and more segments of the society into mainstream economic activities, development in the rural areas is an absolute must. And this developmental work has to be undertaken in a collective manner involving both the government and the private sector.

Sir, we all know that giving a strong push to economic activities in the rural areas requires us to simultaneously improve infrastructure facilities in rural areas and education level and health standards among people residing in these areas. What we also need is to develop and strengthen linkages between the hinterland and the urban centres across the country.

As already mentioned, for successfully accomplishing the above tasks, both the government and the private sector have an important role to play.

All of us present here are aware of the thrust the UPA government, under the astute leadership of our Hon'ble Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, has placed on developing social and physical infrastructure in the rural areas of the country.

Sir, the emphasis of the UPA government on generating employment in the rural areas and promoting social equity and justice through the provision of social safety nets found a reflection in the launch of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP). Through this programme the country has recognized the right to work as a fundamental legal right.

Allow me, Sir, to take this opportunity to congratulate the government for extending the NREGP to all the districts of the country. This move of the government indicates the resolve of the leadership of the country to hasten the capacity building process in the country's rural areas.

Sir, as the government institutions put in place the building blocks for spurring growth in rural India, there are several opportunities that are opening for the private sector to successfully engage with the rural enterprises and the rural entrepreneurs.

Let me here take an example. Sir, the expanding telecom coverage in the rural areas provided the opportunity to link up with the rural folk and several Indian companies capitalized on this opportunity and developed models that today are yielding benefits to thousands of farmers across the country.

Information is power and by making available the 'right information' to the farmers, several companies have empowered farmers in a manner never seen before. Employment generation was also an integral part of such models as the last mile connectivity invariably involved local people.

Many Indian companies are today working in the rural areas and have developed models using which they are promoting entrepreneurial activity. Representatives of some of these companies are here with us today and I am sure that through sharing of information and experience with a wider audience, many more such models would take shape in the times ahead.

We also have with us today representatives of organizations involved in promoting rural enterprises in countries such as Kenya, Japan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Thailand. Through sharing of cross-country experiences on successful models of rural enterprise development, I hope each one of us would carry back new ideas and how the same can be implemented in our respective settings.

Friends, the India Rural Business Summit would also see participation of senior functionaries from key ministries of the government including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, the Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Ministry of Information Technology, Ministry of Commerce and Industry among others.

Through discussion and dialogue among these representatives we hope to develop greater convergence among rural development policies of different ministries. We also have with us representatives of different state governments who would share with us the challenges and the opportunities of promoting rural enterprises in their respective states.

Over the next two days, there would be deliberations on how to leverage technology for promoting rural enterprises and on how to leverage micro finance for promoting rural enterprises. We would also appraise the role of existing institutions for promoting rural enterprises. The issue of skill development among rural populance, of branding and marketing of rural products and of creating greater awareness in rural areas about emerging opportunities will also be discussed.

Let me reiterate what I had said at the beginning of my address - India Rural Business Summit is different in content and in scope from other programmes. FICCI is proud to be organizing this programme and this also underlines the importance that we in industry attach to the critical issue of 'inclusive growth' in the country.

We hope that through intense discussions over the next two days, we will be able to arrive at a set of concrete suggestions for promoting rural businesses, and which we will then place before the government for consideration.

Further, we are looking forward to making this programme an annual engagement and take it forward to other regions of the country so that greater and greater participation can be enlisted.

With these few words I now come to the close of my address and welcome all delegates from India and abroad and wish this programme all the success.

Thank you.