By Neeraj Nanda
Melbourne, 1 April: The Indian Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley has said reservations in jobs and educational institutions for Scheduled Casts (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) will continue for a long time. Mr. Jaitley was addressing a large gathering at the Melbourne University at an interaction organized by the Australia India Institute (AII) and the Indian Consulate, Melbourne and conducted by AII, Director Mr. Craig Jeffery.
Mr. Jaitley said the ST are still the most deprived section of Indian society for whom the “quality of life” has not improved.
Touching on the Indian economic development, Mr. Jaitley said the “Indian market-oriented development model has to have a social aspect” and that for a large population “inequality is a reality”.
Agricularists except the few rich ones, Mr. Jaitley said, were in a bad shape and his government was trying to empower the rural people with different schemes.
Answering to a question by SAT, as to what could Australia do in the ‘Make in India’ scheme, when it itself had little manufacturing, the Indian Finance Minister said India was looking at the resources, food processing and infrastructure projects like highways, railway stations and airports.
“ Lots of investment funds in Australia were looking for investing and there has been some positive response,” he said.
Answering to a pointed question on the Hyderabad and Jawaharlal Nehru universities issues, Mr. Jaitley defended the Modi Government’s stand and said India was worst effected by terrorism (referring to the Mumbai blasts and Parliament attack cases) and the ‘sovereignty of India’ was an exception to ‘freedom of speech’.
– SAT News Service.
