President calls for clarity on meaning of development

President Pranab Mukherjee Saturday said there should be clarity on the meaning of development and asked social scientists to identify how growth can be achieved without destruction of environment.

Inaugurating the 40th national conference of the Indian Sociological Society here, the president said that India's biggest strength is diversity and attempts to bring uniformity had failed.

Referring to the Anna Hazare movement, he said that citizens were galvanised into a force through public awareness and the government was compelled to have a dialogue with social activists.

"This shows that our political system has evolved into a model where legislation and action can be scrutinised by the public at every stage, even if there is no right to recall of elected representatives," he said.

Mukherjee said that social scientists should critically evaluate country's successes and failures.

"There should be clarity on what is the meaning of development. Does it mean only GDP growth or also include elements such as gross national happiness adopted by Bhutan?" he said.

The president, who spoke on 'Development, Diversity and Democracy', expressed confidence that India will soon achieve 8-9 percent annual growth and become a three trillion dollar economy.

He asked social scientists to identify how growth can be achieved without destruction of environment and noted that climate change and erratic behaviour of the monsoons would have tremendous consequences for the country and people.

Mukherjee also said that attempts to bring uniformity had failed and Indian civilization has survived because of diversity and the spirit of tolerance towards each other.

He said the manner in which people of different backgrounds, language, culture and ethnicity come together and sit in one legislative chamber under one constitution reflects the strength of India's diversity.

The president asked the conference to discuss how "we can celebrate India's diversity, strengthen democracy and move ahead with development".