Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 8, 2021, interacted with India’s leading economists at an event organised by NITI Aayog on charting the economic agenda in the post covid world.
All the participants agreed that high frequency indicators are showing signs of a strong economic recovery and that too earlier than expected. They suggested measures to maintain this growth rate to drive India’s socio-economic transformation. The economists highlighted the strong structural reform measures that have been undertaken in the past few years and how they would help in the creation of an Atmanirbhar Bharat. Suggestions were made by participants on future reform areas. The Government expenditure on infrastructure was a point made by many participants as a driver of growth in coming years given the significant multiplier benefits that accrue to the economy from public investments in infrastructure.
A focus on labour intensive manufacturing was also mooted by participants given the success India has achieved in launching the production linked incentives (PLI) scheme in mobile manufacturing, according to a PIB release.
The participants also touched upon the potential for further fiscal measures and pitched for a prescribed path for fiscal consolidation. Financial sector reform was also discussed by them. They also highlighted the need to tap household savings as a potential avenue to secure long-term funding for infrastructure projects. The economists also stressed the importance of investing in public health and education as human capital saying it could also emerge as a driver of growth, especially in the knowledge economy going forward.
The Prime Minister appreciated the inputs received from the participants and highlighted the crucial role such interactions played in setting the national development agenda. The Prime Minister highlighted how the covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent management threw up new professional challenges for all those involved. He further highlighted that together with a fiscal stimulus, the government also tried reform based stimulus, which was seen through historic reforms in agriculture, commercial coal mining and labour laws.
The Prime Minister explained his vision behind an Atmanirbhar Bharat, where Indian companies are integrated in global supply chains in a manner not seen before. He highlighted the faith shown by foreign investors in India’s growth story with foreign direct investment growing by 11% between April and October, 2020, despite a global recession.
The PM further highlighted the economic potential set to be unleashed by the National Optical Fibre Network providing internet connectivity to some of India’s most remote areas. On infrastructure, the Prime Minister highlighted the National Infrastructure Pipeline as the government’s commitment to developing world class infrastructure.
The leading economists who participated in the discussion included Arvind Panagariya, Arvind Virmani, Abhay Pethe, Ashok Lahiri, Abheek Barua, IlaPatnaik, K V Kamath, Monika Halan, Rajiv Mantri, Rakesh Mohan, Ravindra Dholakia, Saumya Kanti Ghosh, Shankar Acharya, Shekhar Shah, Sonal Varma, and Sunil Jain.