Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that even though Indian economy has survived the global recession, it is facing problems because of incompetent systems, institutions and structures at every level.

Mr. Mukherjee was addressing convocation IIM-Shillong where he said, “In the coming years, if there is one factor that can hold us back in realising our potential as a modern nation, it is the bottlenecks in our public delivery mechanism.”
Mr. Mukherjee added that the government has taken several initiatives to solve such roadblocks in many sectors from time to time, and some steps have shown great results in reforming the functions of government in those sectors.

But he said “we have a long way to go before we can rest on this count. The system of governance must work towards economic empowerment and make growth human-specific. The economic growth has to be an instrument for development and not an end in itself.”

He said that economic must be inclusive and equitable, in order to sustain for long time. The country needs to quickly go back to its 9% GDP growth and find the means to break the barriers that stopping a double digit growth rate.

He pointed out that the government faces a third challenge which is to harness the country’s economic growth and unite them with recent economic gains to make it more inclusive.

He said, “The thrust imparted to the development of infrastructure in rural areas has to be pursued to achieve the desired objectives within a fixed time frame.” He added that important resources are needed to strengthen food security, improve health facilities and education system in all cities and villages.

He asserted that India has survived a difficult global recession and recovered at a faster rate than most other countries in the world. He said that as the job market improves, graduating students can expect many opportunities.

Putting emphasis on skill development for economic and social growth, he said, “A beginning has been made with the approval of three projects by National Skill Development Corporation to create 10 lakh skilled manpower at the rate of 1 lakh per annum. Such skill development initiatives have to be multiplied to rapidly transform India from a degree-seeking system to a skill acquiring system,” he said.

Literacy plays an important role to develop any country or society. Literacy can lead to health awareness and empower people to participate in the cultural and economic well being of the country. Though literacy has improved considerably after Independence, it still lags behind compared to other countries. National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) estimates that India is growing at a slower rate of 1.5 percent per year in Literacy. The good news is that the rate of literacy in rural areas is increasing. As compared to 2004-05, the literacy rate increased by two percent for the rural population and one percent in urban areas during 2005-06. India’s average literacy rate is pegged at 65.38 percent. The male literacy rate is 75.96 percent and female literacy rate is 54.28 percent.

Literacy varies considerably across gender, across regions and across social groups. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled tribes have lower rates of literacy, and rates of female literacy within these groups are even lower. Regional variations are still very wide, with states like Kerala (90.92) approaching universal literacy, while states like Bihar (47.53) are lagging far behind. Government has taken initiatives to increase literacy rates by launching different programs. One of the initiatives is Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, which was launched in 2001 to ensure that all children in the age group 6–14 years attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010. The National Literacy Mission launched in 1988 imparts functional literacy to non-literates in the age group of 15–35 years. With all these efforts India is one of the countries where the literacy levels are still below the threshold level of 75 percent. Unless various challenges in the existing education system are addressed its difficult to increase the literacy rate in India.