Corruption hurting inclusive growth

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said inclusive growth cannot be achieved without removing corruption."Governance failures and corruption in the system affect the poor disproportionately. An inclusive development agenda cannot succeed without addressing these issues," Mukherjee said while addressing the CII National Conference and Annual session.

He said the benefits of economic growth are not reaching all sections of society and there is need to address the gaps in the system for overall development."It is evident that the fruits of growing prosperity are not being enjoyed equally by all our citizens. There are gaps in our development efforts and in our governance practices, across sectors and in different regions and segments of the country," Mukherjee added.He said the country's economic development should be more holistic to bring about sustained improvement in living standards, access to affordable healthcare and social security, among other things."It is equally important that the available public resources are effectively used. We are acutely conscious that if these resources have to bear fruit, we have to tackle issues of governance and service delivery," Mukherjee added.

The government has formed a ministerial panel on corruption, headed by Mukherjee, which is deliberating among other things to bring in the Lokpal Bill to tackle corruption. The panel also comprises Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister M K Alagiri and Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal.