REMARKS OF THE HON'BLE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, SMT. PRATIBHA DEVISINGH PATIL, AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE COMPENDIUM ON BUSINESS DELEGATIONS BY ASSOCHAM, CII AND FICCI

Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi, 18th June 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am very happy to be here with you at this function where I have been presented with this beautiful book that you have brought out. When I first thought of taking a business delegation with me, I discussed the matter with my Secretary and he was very quick to pick-up the idea. The whole team of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Joint Secretaries and other staff were very proactive and worked together as a team. They got in touch with ASSOCHAM, CII and FICCI and quickly organized the business delegations. I am thankful to all the Chambers for the cooperation that was extended by them.

The first visit was to Latin America and about 15-16 business delegates came on that visit. Therefore, I was not very sure how things would move going into the future. But after this first visit, the concept gained momentum and the number of delegates swelled. During my last visit to South Africa, there were more than 60 delegates. So I am happy with the cooperation extended by the Chambers, and the interest that all of you took, and this has shown us the way.

If as a businessman you go as an individual to any country, I think not that much attention is paid to your requirements. But when you go as a member of a delegation along with the President, I believe you get concerted attention. Your counterparts show interest at your presence, you have interactions with them, and you explore various possibilities in different fields where you can engage with them. I also used to meet our delegations first, and then address the joint session of both Chambers, along with the host Commerce Minister or Industry Minister. In some places the host President attended the meetings. Heads of State of Switzerland, Austria and South Africa had attended. The President of South Africa said he would like to remove all difficulties to see that business, commerce and investments between both countries advanced.

I am thankful to you for the good words which have been said about me, but let me tell you that I don't know anything about industry! I was just a facilitator in taking you with me, so that you met with your counterparts and received the highest attention of the host Government, so that your difficulties were removed. Whenever I used to meet Heads of the States, I used to tell them how mutually beneficial this process is. This convinced them and created interest to see that more and more engagements and economic cooperation takes place between our countries.

I have a great faith in our industry and am confident that our growth rate which has been going-up, but recently there has been some setback, will go up again with the efforts of our industry. The strength of our industry will bring our country out of this phase. I am quite sure about it. Industry has a strong role to play. Even in the past, even during our freedom movement, industry played a role. Industry took interest in the freedom movement and helped in taking the movement forward. So you have played your role, during those days, you are playing your role these days and you will play your role in the future also. I have great hope and belief that our industry has inherent strength to bring progress to our country in spite of difficulties and hurdles, which may confront you.

I also have great hope that industry can play a role in the agriculture field. I always compared a farmer with an industrialist. A farmer is just like an industrialist, because he is also an entrepreneur. What is an entrepreneur? One who is enterprising. A farmer is also an entrepreneur - you may call him an agripreneur, because the land is his, he takes risk, sows the seeds and gambles on the monsoon, and does not know whether the rains will come, and if the rains do come then, he does not know whether the next rain will come when it is needed. This is the risk for the farmer and despite all this, he feeds the nation.

It is, therefore, very necessary that agriculture and industry should work hand in hand in our country. Why should our farmers be forced to commit suicide? I feel very sorry to see this happening. This is another field where our industry I think can take a serious role. Something very important, something very radical, something very revolutionary may take place if industry and agriculture work hand in hand. There is immense scope for all of us to work together in this field. I hope you will also look into this. Some industries I know, are taking interest in agriculture. If this country has to go forward, our rural economy has also to improve, and if the rural economy is regenerated, then you will see prosperity - because prosperity has to come from the grassroots level. Once prosperity is achieved at the grassroots level, our country will progress and we will see not only development, but the fruits of development reaching the last man.

I am interested with the idea of Gross National Happiness of the King of Bhutan. Therefore, apart from Gross National Product, Gross National Happiness is also important. So if we want to bring gross national happiness in our country, then agriculture and industry shall have to come together. Every Indian shall then be happy to see that each man and woman living in our rural and urban areas has a good standard of living and lives happily. I have a great faith in our industry and according to that faith and because of that conviction I though let me take delegations with me and something good will come out of this exercise. I am once again happy to say that good results have been borne out of your initiatives. So your initiative as also your cooperation and interest and your efforts have shown us the way. I hope in the future also you will continue to do so.

Thank you very much.