Economic growth not at cost of societal development: Sonia

Cautioning against economic growth at the cost of societal development, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday called for greater investments in education, healthcare and nutrition to ensure that the benefits of development percolated to every level.
Addressing the India Economic Summit, Gandhi also urged greater public-civil society alliances to translate this into reality.
Gandhi presented the Social Entrepreneur of the Year to Vikram Akula, whose SKS Microfinance has provided $110 million in loans to 4,00,000 women in five states, touching the lives of some 2.5 million people.
The Schwab Foundation of World Economic Forum executive chairman Klaus Schwab has instituted the award. Akula is widely regarded as India's Muhammad Yunus, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize for his Grameen Bank movement in Bangladesh.
"We face formidable challenges. While the world faces old age problems, we face age-old problems of providing adequate resources for elementary education, healthcare and nutrition," Gandhi maintained. "Added to this are the problems of HIV and terrorism.
"India is bursting with growth but there is also widespread want. There is the India of new aspirations but there is also the burden of inequality.
"We are still very low in the UNDP index of growth. We need to galvanise ourselves into a collective effort to improve on this," she added.
In this context, Gandhi pointed out the need for public-civil society alliances to take the process forward.
"We have public-private alliances. Why can't we have public-civil society alliances (to improve the lives of citizens)?" she wondered.
Earlier, WEF advisor Colette Mathur paid a moving tribute to Gandhi's late husband, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, saying he was instrumental in bringing the forum to India in 1984.
"He had a vision of a modern India that was open to the world agenda and in which everyone participated in economic success. You are taking that forward," Mathur said, addressing Gandhi as the audience responded with a loud applause.