The Hindu 24.11.2010
Call to improve infrastructure
Staff Reporter
| District Collector addresses seminar on development |
‘Long-term perspective needed for development'
‘Private-public participation should be taken up'
KOCHI: Stress should be laid on improving infrastructure as modern India is based in cities and not villages, said M. Beena, District Collector.
She was speaking after inaugurating a national seminar on ‘Urban infrastructure financing: option and policies in emerging Indian scenario' at the Bharat Mata College here on Tuesday.
The main issue facing development is not paucity of funds, but absence of a long-term perspective.
Proper studies are required and the successful development models in other countries could be emulated.
More discussions are required on the development angle of decentralisation and how it could be used for improving basic infrastructure, Dr. Beena said.
In his presidential address, Thomas Chakkiath, Auxiliary Bishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese, said that infrastructure development should be taken up using private-public participation. The three-day UGC-sponsored national seminar is being organised by the Department of Commerce and Research Centre in association with the Roads and Bridges Development Corporation of Kerala (RBDCK).
Lalyamma Jose, principal of Bharat Mata College, and Joy Joseph, head of Department of Commerce, spoke at the inaugural session of the seminar.
In the introductory session that followed Vasudev Suresh, Principal Executive Officer, HIRECO and former CMD of HUDCO, Delhi; B.V. Sangvikar, head of Department of Management Sciences, University of Pune; Simon Thattil, Professor, Department of Commerce, University of Kerala; and D. Dhanuraj, chairman, Centre for Public Policy Research, spoke.
T.K. Jose, managing director of RBDCK, delivered the keynote address at the first technical session that followed. V.K. Vijayakumar, investment strategist of Geojit PNB Paribas, presided over the session.
Elected representatives of Kochi Corporation, Kalamassery and Thrikkakara municipalities and Kizhakkambalam panchayat interacted with the experts in the last session of the day.
The seminar will end on Thursday.
