By IANS,
New Delhi : To achieve sustainable growth and environment protection, poverty eradication is a must so that there is no dependence on natural resources for livelihood, President Pranab Mukherjee said here Friday.
Mukherjee was speaking at the 27th Indian Engineering Congress on the theme “Engineering for Sustainable Development and Inclusive Growth: Vision 2025”.
“To achieve truly sustainable growth, poverty eradication is of utmost importance. Poverty and a degraded environment are closely inter-related, especially where people depend for their livelihood primarily on the natural resource base of their immediate environment,” he said.
“Removal of poverty is, therefore, a prerequisite for the protection of the environment,” he said.
According to the president, appropriate climate-responsive technologies are, accordingly, required to provide relief to the economically weaker sections of society.
“Mechanisms must be put in place to make available to developing countries the latest technologies at reasonable cost,” Mukherjee said.
“However, where possible, existing local technologies must be upgraded and adapted to make them more efficient and useful,” he said.