Govt favours wealth creation; profit not a bad word, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Saturday said the Modi government promotes wealth creation and encou-rages entrepreneurs to earn profits through ethical practices without inhibitions. This is in stark contrast to the stance adopted by the votaries of socialism or com-munism, who looked down upon wealth creation in earlier deca-des, she said, indicating that resources can be distributed only when they are generated. Sitharaman was addressing the National Commemorative Seminar on 60 Years of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya's Integral Humanism Lectures."Profit was a bad word (for socialists and communists), whereas that's not what we believe in. We would like to have profit created by genuine ethical practices, and that is what is going to create wealth for the nation," she said.Wealth creation has never been considered a taboo in the long Indian tradition, the finance minister said, emphasising that "wealth creators are not thieves".INTEGRAL HUMANISMSitharaman said every govern-ment policy under former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee and PM Modi has been very reflective of this "integral humanism". Upadhyaya, leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the forerunner of the Bharatiya Janata Party, was a proponent of the philosophy of integral humanism."Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya wanted that while planning, we must keep in mind the person at the very bottom of the system so that he can be uplifted keeping his dignity intact," she said. She also cited Upadhyaya's in-sistence on focusing on seven 'M's while making policies for employment generation with a view to building "Bharatiya technology" man, money, ma-terial, management, motive, market and machine.Emphasis on Labour-intensive IndustriesThe finance minister also sought to distinguish between the economic model followed by former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the immediate aftermath of independence and the vision of Upadhyaya. Nehru’s capital-intensive growth model was influenced by that of the USSR, Sitharaman said, but Upadhyaya—conscious of the fact that the Indian economy had been shaped for centuries by small and medium businesses and that “we are a labour-intensive country” believed it was a flawed model. So, he was in favour of an economic framework that would give due emphasis on labour-intensive industries, she said. AI TO BOOST PRODUCTIVITY Sitharaman said AI is set to improve productivity. The minister pointed out that AI poses some challenges in terms of training people, among others, but it also brings a lot of opportunities with it which need to be tapped. She said young people inclined towards AI are being trained in it through various initiatives, she said. “The government has announced four centres of excellence for AI in the fields of education, agriculture, health and cities of the future.”