India’s take-off moment has arrived: NITI Aayog’s Suman Bery

2023-09-27 10:37:08

India’s take-off moment has arrived, backed by the advantages of having the world’s largest working population and resilient physical and digital institutions, NITI Aayog’s vice chairman Suman Bery said on Wednesday.

However, managing urbanisation, making regulations consistent and continuous, adapting to disruptive technologies, managing climate change and addressing the issue of regional imbalances are the key challenges that the country faces, he said, while addressing a session on ‘India’s Amrit Kaal: Implications on the private sector’ organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI).

Speaking on the implications on the private sector, Bery said India’s economy was at a stage where the private sector had to play a more significant role. “The relationship between the public and private sectors needs to be redefined in the Amrit Kaal, to lead the country to a path of sustainable growth and away from the middle-income trap,” he said.

According to Bery, while the government is facilitating holistic development, the onus lies on the private sector to lead us on a sustainable growth trajectory. This, he said, can be done through enhanced investment from the private sector on research and development.

“The investment in R&D is 1-2% of the GDP with a huge part of it coming from the government while the private sector contributes less than 40% to the annual R&D spend compared to over 70% that they contribute in advanced countries,” he said.

“If we are to transit from the middle income trap, the private sector needs to enhance its contribution to R&D through its own investments and under corporate social responsibility (CSR),” he added.Bery called upon the private sector to collaborate with the government to be part of the National Research Foundation or channelise foreign direct investment (FDI) into research and development. Talking regarding the agriculture sector, Bery said, “our policies have created lobbies which are difficult to unwind”.

Reiterating that India has the advantage of having the largest arable land and the largest population of bovine animals, Bery said this issue of raising agricultural productivity and having opportunities for displaced labour is a big challenge.

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