SME Times News Bureau | 18 Oct, 2018
Gender
parity and exports are the two critical areas which India must focus on to be
able to grow at higher rates of 9-10 per cent per year for the next three
decades or more to lift a very young population above poverty line, said NITI
Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant in New Delhi.
"While India has focussed on innovation,
infrastructure, structural reforms and ease of doing business but a lot of work
still needs to be done on gender parity and exports and ensuring that India has
growth with equity," said Kant on Tuesday.
Talking about the challenges for India in achieving
9-10 per cent growth for longer periods of time, Mr Kant said, "There are
challenges of gender parity because in India only 24 per cent of women work
while world average is 48 per cent, if India has to grow at higher rate, it
needs to ensure that women work. Therefore, consciously men need to push for
gender parity."
He added that India cannot grow at 9-10 per cent
over a long period of time without exports. Exports has to be a major area of
growth for India and it requires big thinking, big scale of manufacturing, innovation
and constant ability to penetrate global markets.
Stating that several countries had achieved 9-10
per cent growth post World War-II like Japan, Korea and China, he said, There
is no reason when you have a very young population and light dependency burdens
that India should not achieve this, India must achieve this.
The CEO of the premier think-tank of the Government
of India also said that Indians need to find solutions to their own problems be
it providing seed and fertiliser to farmers depending on soil and weather
condition, converting waste into energy, provide clean drinking water and
others.
"There are a lot of innovations which take place in
Silicon Valley and the US but much of that is for driverless cars, war weapons,
drones and other things but Indians have to find solutions to their problems,"
said Mr Kant.
He lauded the present government for making rules
and regulations very easy and simple through digitisation and minimal human
intervention. Besides, FDI regime has created a vast number of jobs, opened up
investments and sectors.
"This government has carried out vast number of
structural reforms which might give teething problems, some businesses will
suffer but in the long run India will gain over a long period of time," he said
further.