India needs to bet on a few rising sectors, say experts on Modi govt’s 9 years

Even as the Narendra Modi government has done exceptionally well in improving efficiency of delivery of public goods and services in its nine years of governance, it still needs to do more for prosperous growth of all parts of India, believe experts.

A key area of focus would be to bet on a few rising industries and get the government and the private sector to work in tandem, said Rajiv Kumar, former NITI Aayog vice-chairman.

The government has done exceptionally well in improving efficiency of delivery of public goods and services but it needs to focus on prosperous growth in all parts of India, said noted policy expert Rathin Roy.

“We cannot subsidize majority of the population in perpetuity. Long term growth must support affordable prices without subsidies,” he said.

Rajiv Kumar stressed that the small and medium industry sector was highly localised and said there is potential for diversification in exports across sectors of the economy but there is a need for special effort to make our small and medium industries globally competitive.

Another key point he highlighted is that we need to “pick some industries that are going to be winners”. He noted that the performance linked incentive (PLI) scheme has become dissipated and spread across so many large sectors.

“Every country that has seen its market share go up has taken a bet on few of the rising sectors of the global economy,” he said, adding that India needs to take such bets.

He said that this should be done in a manner where the government and the private sector work together. “Agree on that bet, then execute and implement them.”