Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make-in-India flagship programme is not garnering the right people.
Rahul, while addressing students at the Princeton University on Tuesday, said Modi's Make-in-India programme, instead of targetting large businesses, should concentrate on promoting small businesses.
While asserting that the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) initiative should help small businesses prosper, Rahul said, "In my view, the highlight of the 'Make in India' concept and the target of the 'Make in India' concept should be different. So, the prime minister feels that target of the concept should be large businesses. I feel that the concept should be targetting the smaller businesses."
"The problem is not enough small medium businesses are getting access to the finance, physical system or political system. You have large companies that have a role, but then the small or medium companies should be turning in large companies and that's not happening. And that is the thing from where jobs are going to come from," he added.
Rahul Gandhi further said there is need of focussing on the agricultural front. "We also have to look into the agriculture sector; from there also, a lot of jobs can be produced," he said.
He added that unemployment is one of the major threats to the growth of the nation. New Delhi needs to work on providing adequate education and health facilities to all its people, irrespective of whether they are rich or poor.
"The central question is how India gives its people jobs. If you, as a modern country, are unable to give your people jobs, it's very difficult to give them a vision. Everyday nearly 30,000 new youngsters come into job market. 450 jobs are being provided today," he said.
"Education and health facilities at the top level are very good, but if you go to a state like Bihar or Uttar Pradesh things don't remain the same. If you are poor, things are not very good for you in India," he added.
Gandhi further averred the need to work on the lines of gender equality.
"No way near enough is being done as far as the gender equality is concerned. We have done quite a lot of work in the political space, but a lot more needs to be done," he said.
Rahul Gandhi's address comes days after his recent address at the University of California, Berkeley, where, in his speech on 'India at 70', he reflected on contemporary India and the path forward for the world's largest democracy.
