COMMENTARY
INTERVIEWS
SPECIALS
CHAT
ARCHIVES

Corporatise governmental organisations, urges Naidu; invest in human development, pleads Heptullah

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has advocated a new concept of competitive economy, aimed at running governmental organisations on corporate lines in a bid to make them efficient and eliminate poverty.

Addressing a press conference in Tirupati, Naidu said the mixed economy, adopted ever since the country's independence, had resulted in the ''incompetence'' of the public sector undertakings and the present economic chaos. On the other hand, the competitive economy would ensure that only the fittest of the PSUs survived. If a PSU failed to be competitive, it should be handed over to private sector, he added.

He also called for simplification of procedures to enable the administration to function without any bureaucratic and political influence and render it more transparent. It was also essential to usher in a new work culture for making the economy vibrant, he added.

Naidu said modalities were being worked out for taking the administration to the door-step of the common man through information technology.

In Hyderabad, Naidu announced that the Andhra Pradesh government and the United Nations Development Programme signed a memorandum of understanding for preparing the human resource index in the state.

Releasing the UNDP's Human Development Report, he said the index would be utilised for framing policies for education, health and other development programmes in the state.

He said the UNDP was working extremely well at present in 20 mandals or sub-districts of the state. Emphasising the need for the use of human resource for ensuring speedier development, he said human resource would play a major role in developmental process.

Naidu said the government was committed to sustainable human development as evident from a number of people-centred developmental initiatives launched by the government in recent times.

He said the government had formed unique self-help groups empowering the stake-holders and the beneficiaries of the resources for development like water users associations, watershed committee, joint forest management committees, chief minister's employment yojana groups for self-employment and school education committees.

The Janmabhoomi programme was a continuous development process aimed at rebuilding the villages and towns and establishing an ideal society which embodied and cherished the concepts of hard-work, honesty, team-work, cooperation, accountability and transparency.

Naidu said with the involvement of people in the developmental programmes, the government desired to convert the state into a ''swarna (golden) Andhra Pradesh''.

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptulla said recent trends of economic liberalisation could precipitate greater economic disparity and disempowerment. So, it was necessary to modify the process to accomodate the need for human development.

Stressing the need for investment to ensure elementary education, reproductive health of women, nutrition, water and sanitation among developing countries, she said the more developed countries had not shown adequate inclination to share the burden.

According to the estimates, about $ 40 billion were required to build human development infrastructure among the developing countries, Heptulla said adding, on the other hand, the developed countries spent more than $ 50 billion on cosmetics, perfumes and other luxury items.

She said in the interest of social peace and stability, the disparity between the developed and developing societies should be removed. If there was any clash of civilisation, it was between abject deprivation and wasteful extravagance, she added.

The UNDP resident representative in India, Brenda McSweeneysaid the United Nations will provide $ 2 million to Andhra Pradesh under the Poverty Alleviation Programme

She was briefing reporters here at the end of the first day of the two-day southern region workshop, discussing the main policy recommendations of the 'human development report 1998, which focusses on consumption patterns.

She said it was the people and not incomes and growth alone that needed to be the focus of development.

The UNDP would provide $ 1 million directly and the Turner Foundation, through the UN another $ 1 million, she added.

The pilot project of the UNDP-supported South Asia Poverty Alleviation Programme currently under way in 700 villages of Kurnool, Ananthapur and Mahbubnagar districts would also provide opportunities for synergy between the UN agencies, she added.

She said a joint UN system-supported programme for community-based primary education just launched in seven states including Andhra Pradesh aimed at bringing back the child to the school.

UNI

• The Christian Science Monitor article on Chandrababu Naidu:
  Fast-Rising Leader of a Cyber-State