Need skill, speed, scale to compete with China: Prime Minister

Concerned over the rising trade deficit with China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that India need to focus on imparting skills to its young population, expand the scale of projects it undertook and improve the speed of execution in order to compete with China. India’s trade deficit with China averaged at around $35 billion during the past three years. During January-April’ 2014, the total volume between China and India amounted to $ 21.98 billion out of which India exported $6.57 billion and imported $15.41 billion, representing a trade deficit of $8.84 billion.

Emphasizing the need to focus more on skill, scale and speed, Prime Minister has said that it has become imperative to take benefit of country’s favorable demography, as 65 percent of population was below 35 years of age. By adding further, Narendra Modi said that skill development such as teaching, nursing and paramedics need to be a priority area and good teachers are one of the biggest needs of society. Further, universities should be actively involved in research and analysis of the developmental process, to contribute significantly for policy-related decisions.

Narendra Modi cited the three colours of the national flag to express views on the development of key sectors for overall economic growth of the country. Beginning with green, Prime Minister said that India needs to bring about a second green revolution focusing on increased agro-productivity, agro technology, value addition and decentralization of warehousing. Further, a white revolution must focus on increasing milk productivity and developing a support system for ensuring cattle health. While, the saffron colour represents energy and India needs a saffron revolution which will focus on renewable energy sources such as solar energy to meet India's growing energy demand.  Prime Minister further added that in infrastructure the focus needs to shift from highways to i-ways and optical fibre networks.