During the last decade, every 1% increase in GDP created 1.6 million additional jobs, a CII study undertaken on the occasion of the National Conference has revealed; establishing that GDP growth and tackling unemployment & income distribution are closely aligned and must be addressed simultaneously for inclusive growth. Against this backdrop, CII National Conference would deliberate on various facets of inclusive growth viz. trade, skills, environment, security, information, ethics, governance and social responsibility, political leadership, globalization, etc.

Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, will speak on “The New Trade Paradigm: Evolving Partnerships towards Inclusive Growth” on April 8 and address the issue of achieving inclusive growth by leveraging exports.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Communications and Information Technology, Mr Kapil Sibal would stimulate discussions on unleashing the potential of India’s best resource - its people. The Minister would speak on the need for converging education and skills infrastructure for greater national productivity, inclusion and growth.

While the country is poised to maintain the growth momentum, there is an imperative need to sync development compulsions with the responsibility of conservation and preservation. Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Mr Jairam Ramesh would expound on sustainability and environmental concerns during the session titled ‘Environmental Security: Beyond Copenhagen and Cancun’ on April 9. Mr Y C Deveshwar, Chairman, ITC Limited, would provide the industry perspective.

Chief Ministers of three states – Gujarat, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir - would come together to deliberate on the development strategies for inclusive growth in the states during the session on ‘Inclusive Growth and the Imperatives of Governance : Models from the States’ on 8 April. Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission would steer the discussants, Mr Narendra Modi, Mrs Sheila Dikshit and Mr Omar Abdullah.

CII National Conference would also focus on the impact of entirely new dimension of information flow emanating through social media. During discussions on the session titled, ‘New Uncertainties for Government and Business in the New Public Information Space’; Mr Nik Gowing, Main Presenter, BBC World News would quiz Mr Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commission and Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman & Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises Limited on this game changer.

Building consensus is the hallmark of democratic process. The world’s largest democracy needs to build policy consensus on critical issues such as poverty alleviation, education and health. Mr Nitin Gadkari, President, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) would throw some light on ‘How to Attract Young Talent into Politics and how to get Convergence on Critical Issues’ during the special Plenary Session on 9 April.

During the Valedictory Session on 9 April, Mr Arun Jaitley, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, would reflect on the challenges of insurgency and how these can be mitigated through an inclusive growth process.