State-wise targets are important because once you drill down to that level, rather than just talking in air, things can actually take shape, says Rajiv Kumar, VC, Niti Aayog. In an interview with ETNOW, he said fixing infra deficit, cost of credit, labour reforms and exchange rates can give Indian economy a competitive edge.
How do you propose to revv up India’s growth engine?
States have to be given separate targets. India is a diverse country with states of different size. For example, Maharashtra has a $400 billion economy today. They can say we want to double it or we want to reach one trillion in the next five years or something. Look at Tripura. It is a $36-billion economy and they can think of becoming a $80-billion economy. Look at the diversity in our country. The state-wise targets are important because once you drill down at that level, then things can actually take shape rather than just talking in air, so that is one.
You talked about the possibilities and he emphasised exports a lot because our share in merchandise trade is 1.67% and has been stuck there forever and ever. Now China has risen to about 13%. Even if we double or triple our exports, and which is easily possible, then from $300 billion, they again become a trillion and why shouldn’t they? Their share of exports to GDP has actually fallen in the last few years. The exports is a huge possibility. The other very big one is agriculture. About 43% of our workforce is engaged in producing less than 18% of our GDP. It just shows that there is a massive potential for improvement in productivity and profitability and commercialisation of agriculture.
Source: Economic Times
