President Inaugurates the 20th International Engineering and Technology Fair

The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the 20th International Engineering and Technology Fair (IETF-2013) at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi today (February 15, 2013).

In his inaugural address, the President said the IETF has been organized at a time when the world is beginning to emerge from the second-round impact of the global economic crisis. India too has felt the repercussions of global slowdown. The President said that though India’s economic growth has recently declined somewhat, he was confident that India would be able to bring the deceleration to a halt and revert to the 8 per cent plus growth levels that we had attained many times in the past. The underlying growth impetus remains strong due to continued rise in per capita incomes, expanding middle-class consumers and a young and energetic workforce, he said. The President stated that stronger efforts from all stakeholders collectively could build on this trend to secure a faster growth as the global economy revives.

The President said people should be at the heart of the engineering effort, reaching out to human resources, consumers and vendors. The National Manufacturing Policy, 2011 has envisaged the creation of 100 million additional jobs in the manufacturing sector by 2025. To make Indian Industry productive and competitive, we must enhance our capabilities on many fronts, primarily human skill, hardware technology, and knowledge base, he added.

The President said innovation is a key managerial strategy for growth. He said that we must lay emphasis on its various dimensions such as process innovation, product innovation, business model innovation and new technology innovation. A sustainable development model is not only an imperative today but is also opening new opportunities for the industrial sector, he stated.

This release issued at 1330hrs