CII pegs GDP growth at 7.2%

Forecasting 7.2 per cent GDP growth for the current fiscal, industry chamber CII on Tuesday stressed on sustainable development for alleviating poverty and employment generation in the country.

"India needs high rate of sustained growth to alleviate poverty, increase living standards and reduce differentiation.

We need to look at our growth with an eye on long term sustainability to achieve this," newly elected CII president YC Deveshwar said.

He said in the current fiscal Confederation of Indian Industry expects India to grow at 7.2 per cent, with the agriculture sector projected to achieve 3 per cent growth, while industry and services are pitched to witness 8.1 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively.

"Sustainability would be the new dimension of CII's work on competitiveness across all sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing and services," he said.

CII's focus for sustainable development would be on employment and employability, rural economy, infrastructure, nurturing and renewing social capital and governance, he added.

Commenting on employment generation, Deveshwar said while focussing on sectors, which are employment intensive are necessary, it was equally imperative to focus on sectors, which are not employment intensive by itself but its forward and backward linkages are employment intensive.

CII has identified textiles and garments, leather and leather products, food processing, tourism paper, knowledge-based industries, gems and jewellery as employment intensive sectors, he added.