Mangaluru: Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said the industries and State governments are important stakeholders in improving the country’s growth rate.

Praising the entrepreneurship of people from Mangaluru, Ms. Sitharaman began the speech on commerce police, at a programme organized by Mangaluru Initiative for Nationalist Dialogue.

Stating that revamping the Planning Commission was being criticized without looking into the huge ground word that had gone into it. “With the changes made, the State Governments no longer need to have ‘begging attitude’, instead can take independent steps, she said.

Ms. Sitharaman further said that the union government will take more steps to end license raj. The government will not be a regulator where industry inspections are carried out for every half an hour.

On the ‘Make in India’ concept, she said it was to change the mindset of people to encourage entrepreneurship. “The government will encourage the small and medium enterprises which provide about 60 million jobs, although they contributed only 8 percent to the GDP. Productivity in agriculture also needed a boost, she added.

Though service sector was contributing more to the GDP, thrust was being given to manufacturing because it could contribute must better for the economy. But the government would not ignore the service sector and a conclave had been planned to address concerns of the sector in April.