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5 trillion dollar economy is doable, says NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant

Updated: Jan 28, 2020 09:15:03am
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5 trillion dollar economy is doable, says NITI Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant

New Delhi, Jan 28 (KNN) NITI Aayog's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant has said that despite a tough task, '5 trillion dollar economy' is achievable.

While speaking at an event on “Mainstreaming Innovation towards 5 Trillion dollar Economy” organised jointly by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Rajasthan and CUTS International, on Saturday in Jaipur, he said, “India becoming a US 5 trillion dollar economy by 2015, though a tough ask, is very much doable.”

According to him, for achieving the said national target, India would need to grow at 12.4 per cent, in nominal terms or 8.4 per cent in real terms, which can be attained provided that states would have to play a critical role.

Since, wealth is largely created by the private sector, therefore along with the central government, States would also have to facilitate the Ease of Doing Business, (EODB) according to Kant.

He cited examples of backward states like Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh showing great improvements on this front in recent years.

Pradeep S Mehta, Secretary General of CUTS International, moderating the session, flagged the importance of setting target like that of 5 trillion economy, and building up a positive narrative in order to achieve the same.

While delivering the welcome address, Mugdha Sinha, Secretary, DST, Rajasthan, said that their visions “STRIDE – Science, Technology, Research, Innovation, Design and Entrepreneurship – is going to take India into the 5 trillion economy bracket”.

Fuelling the mood of optimism in the present day economic slowdown, Kant provided the contours of the strategy that can help India achieve the target. Satisfied about the growth of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the country, he emphasised deeper integration of Indian firms in the global value chain.

Kant also flagged urbanisation as key driver for fast growth, though he would like built-in elements of sustainability, for which innovation would be needed.

He also flagged the role of Indian start-ups for exponential economic growth, which can use anonymisedpublic datafor their scaling up and machine learning.

NITI Aayog CEO further mentioned about three main challenges in the road to 5 trillion dollar economy.  First, a huge disruption is needed in agriculture sector, including connecting farmers to markets. Second, increasing size and scale of manufacturing units to be globally competitive. Third, significant improvement in social indices, particularly health, nutrition and education.

“For all these, innovation is the key without which it would be tough for India to attain the target of 5 trillion dollar economy,” he observed.

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