The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Expert for more reforms to sustain high growth

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Expert for more reforms to sustain high growth

Special Correspondent

— PHOTO: P. V. Sivakumar

KEY ISSUES: Arvind Panagariya delivering the K.L.N. Prasad Memorial lecture at ASCI in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

HYDERABAD: One more bout of reforms in agriculture to divert the workforce to manufacturing sector, labour laws to encourage labour-intensive industries, power, education and health will enable the country to sustain its high growth rate.

Delivering the K.L.N. Prasad Memorial Lecture on ‘Indian growth miracle – What are the lessons?’ at the Administrative Staff College of India here on Tuesday, Columbia University’s economics professor Arvind Panagariya said that 55 per cent of people were depending on agriculture, which contributed 15 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Growth in manufacturing sector remained static at 15 per cent of GDP ever since India began economic reforms.

Though a good legislation was put in place with regard to power sector, it could not be implemented properly.

At least 80 per cent of people were going to private doctors for outpatient treatment and some were even depending on quacks. The government had failed in providing healthcare, education and proper management of water, he observed.

Optimistic

Prof. Panagariya, however, sounded optimistic that the high growth rate could be sustained as India proved that democracy, with all its political pulls and pressures, did not stand in the way of growth. Openness in the policy was critical and India was able to continue the same. He advocated the need for making space for entrepreneurs for continuing to create wealth.

While Indira Gandhi, with all her progressive approach to people’s problems, had done great damage to the country on the economic front, Rajiv Gandhi tried his best to catapult India into 21st Century with reforms but was mired in controversial issues.

Prof. Panagariya credited P.V. Narasimha Rao with taking up effective reforms, saying that “though most of us ascribe them to Manmohan Singh.”

He went on to say but for the continuance of reforms with commitment by the NDA government, India couldn’t have achieved the current 9 p.c. growth rate.

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