Economic Survey Calls For 'Entrepreneurial State' For Next Level Of Growth

New Delhi, Jan 29 (KNN) The Economic Survey 2025-26 tabled in Parliament by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday called for 'entrepreneurial policymaking' in order to enable state machineries to act when outcomes may not be certain.

The Survey said that state machinery needs to become an entrepreneurial state, borrowing the phrase from Italian-American economist and academician Mariana Mazzucato.

The Survey authored by Chief Economic advisor (CEA) V. Anantha Nageswaran said that the phrase entrepreneurial state does not mean state capitalism or favouring private interests and instead it refers to deeper shift towards entrepreneurial policymaking under uncertainty.

"India has already begun to see elements of this approach in practice: from the creation of mission-mode platforms in semiconductors and green hydrogen, to the restructuring of public procurement to enable first-of-a-kind domestic innovation, and to state-level deregulation compacts that replace inspection-based control with trust-based compliance," the Survey said.

It added, "These are early signals of what an entrepreneurial state looks like when it moves from compliance to capability."

The Survey also stated the need for a deeper system-level institutional capacity, including a capable state and a private sector that understands that this phase of India’s rise is not merely commercial but also geopolitical in its implications.

"The deregulation and smart regulation initiatives undertaken by states in the last year, in particular, provide ample grounds for optimism that the state machinery is capable of reinventing itself and its mission, shifting from regulation and control to enabling," it said.

(KNN Bureau)