'WE EXPECT ENGINE OF PRIVATE INVESTMENT TO GATHER PACE'

Newly appointed CII President SANJIV PURI explains to ASHISH SINHA of BW Businessworld why the Cll is optimistic about Indian industries boosting economic growth and outlines the future roadmap. Excerpts

-  ASHISH SINHA

Can you elaborate on the next-gen reforms that the CII believes are crucial for achieving the projected 8 per cent GDP growth in FY25?

Let me start with acknowledging the number of reforms that have been carried out in the last decade or so, which have been driving India’s growth. In our view, some of the next-generation reforms, which can unlock significant growth opportunities and propel India’s growth rate to 8-plus per cent, lie in the domains of land, labour, power, agriculture, and fiscal sustainability. However, these lie either in the State domain or in the Concurrent List. Hence, we are suggesting creation of institutional GST-like platforms for consensus building on these reforms between the Centre and the State governments.

It is imperative to build India’s human capital for inclusive growth and for industry competitiveness. Focus on education, skill development and health have to be a key priority. Public expenditure on education should be ramped up to 6 per cent of the GDP and on healthcare to 3 per cent of the GDP over a period. Currently, less than 5 per cent of India’s workforce has formal skill training. India’s mission should be to have at least 25 per cent of the workforce skilled by 2030.

Investment in R&D needs to be ramped up from the current 0.67 per cent of the GDP to at least the global average of 2.6 per cent of the GDP over the medium term. This is important for India to be able to continue to grow at a rapid pace in the knowledge and technology-based global economy of the future. Trade can be an important driver of India’s growth, and policy needs to focus on deepening India’s integration with the global supply chains. What India needs is to evolve a common overarching strategy promoting investments, facilitating trade and global value chain (GVC) integration, and fostering manufacturing to achieve the best results for economic growth.