CHENNAI: Emphasising on the scale and process behind welfare schemes, Tamil Nadu Minister for Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Tuesday listed out reasons for reelecting the DMK, stating that its approach in the last five years has been rooted in social justice.
Drawing on 10-year public life and decades of data analysis, he said the recent phase of governance has been marked by measurable impact. From the Rs 12-per-child breakfast scheme to targeted welfare enabled by integrated databases, every initiative was structured for efficiency and inclusion. Even free bus rides were implemented in a way that protected loss-making transport corporations, Thiaga Rajan said.
“I hope the people will decide that we should continue because we do good work. We are thoughtful, we are responsible and we provide our political philosophy of social justice, 100% inclusion and upliftment of all sections of society, as opposed to just a few,” he added.
Thiaga Rajan was speaking at the 14th edition of the ThinkEdu Conclave in a session titled ‘Innovation to Impact: Building India’s Tech Future’, chaired by author Shankkar Aiyyar.
Talking about new jobs and employment opportunities in TN with the growth of AI, he said, “There are lots of new jobs being created. For example, there is a company in Coimbatore annotating and digitalising visual images for autonomous vehicles. Initially it had 200 jobs and now it has 400. So jobs are growing in different areas. The transformation of jobs will happen slower than we think. It is not immediate, and new jobs are being created, particularly for the foreseeable future.”
Explaining the financial situation of the state, the minister said that while finances are not dramatically better today, they have stabilised alongside expanded welfare schemes and 11.19% real growth last year, he said.