Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu. (Photo: Twitter/@VPSecretariat) Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu. (Photo: Twitter/@VPSecretariat)

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu said on Monday that India is the economic hope of the world and the picture is both fascinating and complex. He said millions of people are working round the clock to keep the wheels of economy running. “India is the economic hope of the globe and that the picture is both fascinating and complex as our economy is fast expanding,” Naidu said. He was speaking at a function to give away Prime Minister’s Shram Awards to 338 workers, according to a statement issued by the Labour Ministry.

“This is the ‘real GDP’ festival. By this I mean, the ‘Growth Driving Power’ from among whom the ‘Great Dedicated Persons’ are being honoured today and these two GDPs are critical for the ‘Gross Domestic Product’, the GDP that we are all ultimately concerned with,” he said. On this occasion, Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar reiterated that the commitment of the government to protect workers’ rights and their welfare.

He said the initiatives of Ministry of Labour and Employment directly affect more than 50 per cent of the Indian population whereas indirectly it caters to almost the entire population. He listed the labour reform initiatives undertaken by his ministry, particularly the Code on Social Security, which proposes to universalise social security cover for all workers. “Minimum Government and Maximum governance” was the guiding principle of his ministry in its policy discourse, Gangwar said.

Public Sector workers bagged 232 Awards while 106 Awards were bagged by Private Sector (PRS). Awards were also bagged by group of workmen together. Out of 338 Awardees twenty were Women and two were posthumously awarded.

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