Niti CEO says 10% growth not possible without improving HDI

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said the country needs to improve its human development index (HDI) to achieve a growth of around 10 per cent. We are growing at around 7.5 per cent and if our ambition is to grow at high rates like 10 per cent over a three-decade period, (then) it is not possible to do this if we don't improve the HDI for India, Kant said at an event by child-rights organisation Plan India here on Friday.

Such growth, Kant said, was not possible if infant-mortality and maternal-mortality rates were at very high rates and if one in three children was stunted. In the 2016 UN Human Development Report, India had slipped one place to rank 131st among 188 countries in the HDI.

Stating that there were around 200 backward districts in India, Kant underlined that it was not possible for the government alone to transform. Therefore, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play a very important role, he added.

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Speaking at the event, veteran actor and social activist Shabana Azmi said since India is a multi-religious, multi-cultural and multi-lingual society, any effort for the country's development needs to be made by all stakeholders, like the government, NGOs and community workers.

But, above all, to actually impact change at the level where it is required, it cannot happen without the last-mile frontline workers, the actor added.