Befitting the occasion and the theme of the World Bank's first Annual Conference on Development Economics in a developing country, Wipro Chairman Azim H Premji on Wednesday said that India is not far from achieving the status of a developed economy.

He declared that the key differentiator between the rich and poor nations lied in their ability to unleash the people power and invest it in raising the human capital.

Delivering the first keynote address at the three-day conference in Bangalore on 'Building Human Capital for Economic Development,' Premji said development and deployment of right talent in public and private services can soon take India to the 'long-awaited status' of a developed economy.

He said human development was certainly a primary goal than mere economic development, as the former was about people and expanding their choice to lead a better life, which they can value more.

"We measure development in refined manner such as human development index instead of mere average national income. This enables us to include important features such as longevity and knowledge in the development framework along with economic well-being," Premji stated.

Expressing his view that the world and India in particular were at a critical phase of development that would determine the way things shape up in the coming decades, Premji said the difference in composition of wealth between the rich and poor nations bore testimony to the difference in approach to tap the human potential by the haves and have-nots.

"For instance, 75 per cent of national wealth in Western Europe is in the form of its human resources, 23 per cent in industrial produce, and 2 per cent in natural resources, while for West Africa the same percentages are in the order of 60, 19 and 21, respectively."

"It is clear economies that have prospered in the last century have done so due to their ability to tap the human potential. Though economic theories of growth have caught up with the idea during the last two decades, investment in technological change and human capital will only bring about this change and drive such economic growth," Premji asserted.

Lamenting on the continuing disparity between the developed and the under-developed countries, Premji said the richest 5 per cent of the world's people have incomes 114 times than those of the poorest 5 per cent.

"In Sub-Saharan Africa, human development has actually regressed in recent years, and the living conditions of the poor are getting worse. The share of people living on $1 a day at 47 per cent in early nineties remains the same even at the end of the decade," Premji disclosed.

Referring to the status of India in the comity of nations, Premji said there was an urgent need to create a sense of accountability to deliver commitments to the one billion people and their next generation.

"If India has to achieve the global standards of excellence in quality, productivity and efficiency in the shortest time cycle, we need to plan meticulously with will power and commitment so that a reservoir of human capital can be built to transform India into a developed country," Premji affirmed.

Highlighting the success story of Wipro in emerging as a global major, especially in the IT industry, Premji said the need of the hour was to transfer the best practices of some of the corporate organizations to every aspect of public life.

"As a leader of the organisation, I made a commitment way back in 1969 that we would develop leadership by recruiting the best from management campuses. We were among the first Indian companies to do so. The only thing we were looking for in the people we recruited was their culture, values and willingness to learn," Premji recalled.

Calling for development and deployment of right talent in public and private services to make India reach the status of a developed economy, Premji said a beginning had to be made from primary education and move up the value chain to promote professionalism and meritocracy through administrative reforms.

"A sound elementary education with high quality learning can form a solid foundation for the development of India, Premji claimed, citing the role his Foundation was playing in improving the standards of teaching right from the grass-root level.

The key challenge is to develop competent teachers and education functionaries who consider learning by children as number one priority in their life. Budgetary provisions and allocation of certain percentage of the GDP to education are secondary.

"If we have to achieve human development consistently, we need to make learning a continuous process starting from an individual and covering the entire nation in due course by enriching our curriculum and evolving modern evaluation methods," Premji stressed.

In conclusion, Premji said though India has islands of excellence in the form of some institutions and corporate organizations, the challenge before the country was to develop human capital at the grass root level for subsequent deployment in a globalised economy.

"Investments made in education and human developments have cascading, long-term benefits. It is the only way for accelerating economic growth and development of the world economy," Premji exhorted.

ABCDE, which this year has a theme 'Accelerating development,' is into its 15th year and is being held for the first time outside of Washington DC.

Projected as one of the world's best known World Bank-sponsored conferences on development, the conference is being held reflecting the importance of research done in developing nations.

In his brief remarks, World Bank Chief Economist Nicholas Stern said that the event is aimed at exchanging ideas on development.

"There have been strong strides, particularly in the last 15 to 20 years, in development economics around the world and we want to learn from success and failure stories."

India and China, he said, have shown to the world that "it's possible to accelerate development."

Noting that there are 'islands of excellence' in institutions and corporate organisations that have achieved top class standards, Premji said the challenge before India was to develop human capital at the grassroots level deployable in a globalised economy.

"Investments made in education and human developments have cascading, long-term benefits," he observed.

If India has to make major headways in the education area, Premji said, it should stop thinking in terms of better school buildings and start thinking in terms of passionate, highly motivated and highly competent teachers.

"We have to think of the economic scenario that awaits us and the kind of talent we require to meet that scenario successfully. We need to visualize the attributes of the person we want at the end of education."

In his opening remarks, Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna said that acceleration in development should ensure that there was participation and inclusion, that no region was found lagging and that no section of society was left behind.

Liberalisation, globalisation and privatisation had become an accepted state and national policy in India, but rumblings would always be there in a democracy.

"But our march towards the destination is not impeded by rumblings, which are just treated as irritants," he said.

Director General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research Suman Bery, Director of Independent Evaluation Office of the International Monetary Fund Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India Rakesh Mohan were among those present.