Kalam stresses e-marketing in agriculture

While asking the Indian industry to become more competitive and become multinationals, President APJ Abdul Kalam on Sunday said there was a need for crop diversification, use of innovative technology and e-marketing to provide a fillip to the agricultural sector.

While inaugurating the 24th India International Trade Fair, Kalam said every sector of the economy needed to grow simultaneously so that the benefits of growth reached every section of the society.

Urging the industry to choose an integrated technology-driven path, Kalam said, "Business symbolizes Competitiveness. Competitiveness leads to economic growth. Competitiveness is single factor, which will decide India transforming into a developed nation. Technology powers the competitiveness. Competitiveness leads to creation of brand institution."

He said the Indian industry should "learn to think big with the whole world as our market" by developing a strong and interactive Technology- Market - Value Adding Competitive Linkage.

"It will be a great resurgence for our manufacturing, marketing, and maintenance services. Indian Industries should aim to become multi-nationals. Our youth love challenging jobs. We have to create challenging opportunities for them.

He also set a target of $ 150 billion business by the ICT (Information, Communications and Technology) sector by 2010. "With the non-linear growth and value addition with innovations in the application areas such as information security, e-Governance, embedded real time software, hardware and software integration, chip design, wireless, infotainment and tele-education, IT and communication industries in India should aim at higher growth rate to reach a target of $ 150 billion business by the year 2010," he said.

Kalam said ICT could be used as effective tools to disseminate new technology and marketing concepts for the agriculture sector.

He also said that Jatropha Biofuel, rural lighting through innovative means and the use of municipal waste to generate electricity in urban areas could not only improve the quality of life but also held employment potential.