Development could be dislocating: Ansari

8220;Rapid economic development, good in itself, is also dislocating. Conventional social and economic mores of life are disrupted, people are displaced and uprooted by unseen forces beyond their control, social and cultural axes of reference are replaced and people suffer varying degrees of alienation, disconnect with the roots and conflict of their external environment with their internal cultural context,8221; he said at the launch of the International National Trusts Organisation.

On November 21, at the Observer Research Foundation ORF the Vice-President had said: 8220;The United States today is not the Sole Super Power of the spring of 2003. The policies of unilateralism, 8216;creative destruction8217; and pre-emption have faltered. The US has been mauled by non-state actors in Iraq; its policies have given an impetus to terrorism; it has lost domestic support for its Iraq policy.8221;

Taking a critical view of the dominant development model of the country, Ansari said: 8220;Development, to be sustainable, must be inclusive, not just in economic terms but also in cultural terms. Those who have not benefited from the rapid growth of the recent past must be enabled and empowered to participate in the developmental process. The incredible diversity of our heritage, including those of the weaker and marginalised sections, must be preserved.8221;