10 percent growth for decade will minimise poverty: Godrej

PANAJI - A consistent 10 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth spread over a decade will greatly reduce poverty in India, says leading industrialist Jamshyd Godrej.

“A 10 percent growth will help to largely reduce poverty in India in a decade’s time,” Godrej, chairman and managing director of Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Co Ltd., told IANS on the sidelines of the annual general body meeting of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) Saturday.

“Unless incomes are raised rapidly, the 500 to 600 million poor in India cannot be helped,” he added.

Godrej also said that the 15 percent rate of industrial growth in India was still below par, if one took major hindrances like poor infrastructure, power cuts and non-availability of skilled workers into account.

Godrej, who was a special invitee at the GCCI meet, emphasised that green growth was emerging as the very basis of sustainable development today.

He added that the building sector, which accounts for 40 percent of all energy consumed in India, would in future have to adhere to a new sustainable building code, which is set to replace the National Building Code (NBC), a comprehensive national instrument providing guidelines for regulating construction activities across the country.

“The 40 percent consumption of energy in India can be halved if we only adhere to norms suggested in the new sustainable building code,” he said.

Green buildings are structures built using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource efficient.