Violence against women, rising hate crimes can hamper India's growth: Adi Godrej

Industrialist and businessman Adi Godrej, while addressing a crowd at a leadership summit, spoke about the rising intolerance which the nation is witnessing.

The summit was organised on Saturday to celebrate his alma mater St Xavier's College's 150th anniversary.

Godrej showed concern towards the increasing disharmony in the country and warned. He also warned that nation's economic growth could get seriously damaged due to the intolerance, hate crimes and moral policing.

The industrialist warned that economic growth would be affected if rising intolerance, social instability, hate crimes, violence against women, moral policing, caste and religion-based violence and many other sorts of intolerance that are rampant were not contained to ensure social harmony.

But he also added that not everything was well and pointed out a slew of concerns on the social front.

He said, "It's not all a rosy picture now. One must not lose sight of the massive impoverishment plaguing our nation which can seriously damage the pace of growth going forward and prevent us from realising our potential."

He also stated that unemployment was at 6.1 per cent, a four-decade high, and should be tackled at the earliest.

Other issues which he highlighted included water crisis, growing use of plastics and the crippling medical facilities.

He, however, congratulated PM Narendra Modi on presenting a grand vision to build a new India and nearly double the economy to a $5-trillion giant over the course of his second term in office.