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Taking a dig at those opposing the ongoing economic reforms in the country, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley has said the post-liberalisation gains were overlooked in the prevailing ''syndrome of cynicism''.
Delivering the convocation address at the Amity Law School in New Delhi on Friday evening, Jaitley said the only thing holding the country back from realising its potential was ''our habit of talking ourselves down''.
He said people disregarded the many milestones achieved in economic, political, social fields. ''In the post-liberalisation period, a sea change has occurred in the economy. We have evolved from the era of shortages to surpluses but our greatest drawback is that we are a highly cynical nation,'' the minister commented.
Jaitley said India was the fourth largest economy in the world today and was among the leading countries in IT, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and related fields. India was highly competitive and had made great progress in these fields.
In this context, he referred to a United States Congressional delegation that met him and raised two areas of concern vis-a-vis India; one was America's adverse balance of trade with India and the other was the proposed ban on outsourcing labour for back office operations from countries like India as they felt this was contributing to the unemployment in the US.
He remarked that there had been a big scare that post-World Trade Organisation the prices of essential drugs would go up substantially, but instead Indian pharma companies had become globally competitive with a strong R&D base and were able to produce drugs at one third the price of foreign firms.
Jaitley said the media and educational institutions were the two agencies that could crack this syndrome of cynicism. However, he criticised the media for failing to fulfil this role and for its propensity to portray a negative image of the country. The only ray of hope, he said, were the country's educational institutions.
Referring to the education sector, Jaitley, who is also minister for law and justice, said there was a need for overhauling the system and updating the curriculum, content and scope of subjects. Quality education was the need of the hour and for this people had to be ready to pay more.
Working president of the institute, Lalit Bhushan, in his address noted that legal education played an important role in society as it distinguished ''law of the jungle'' from ''rule of law''.
Admitting that the legal profession was commercialised, he said there was nothing wrong with making money as long as lawyers worked with a conscience and were aware of their responsibilities and duties.
''Gandhiji, Nehru, and other great leaders were lawyers but they discarded their profession for the service of the nation. Lawyers today too must serve the country by taking up cudgels for the cause of the poor, downtrodden, and weaker sections,'' he said.
Ritnand Balved Educational Foundation president Ashok Chauhan and director of the Law School, Dr M K Balachander, also addressed the gathering.
Jaitley presented diplomas to the students who completed their courses in law. The Amity Law school offers courses in cyber law, trade law and intellectual property rights law.
UNI