“Cut through the jungle of controls”

Arvind Virmani, member of the NITI Aayog, on reforms and charging up India's growth

- BY SIDDHARTH ZARABI

As India prepares to speed up economic growth to meet the Viksit Bharat dream by 2047, one question crops up quite often: What is to be done? That's a question 76-year-old economist Arvind Virmani, member of the NITI Aayog, has tackled at different junctures of India’s development journey. In an interview to BT, he talks about the areas that receive lesser attention in conversations about reforms but which are equally vital to ensure that growth meets ambitions. Edited excerpts:

Q: What would be the top two or three areas on which we need to work to reach Viksit Bharat status?

A: Let me start with things that are less talked about. I would point to three things that I learnt and investigated over the last two-and-a-half years at the NITI Aayog. The first is what we could call the quality of learning and teaching. Statistics show that enrolment rates are 100% or thereabouts. The completion rates of various levels of schooling are very high, but learning tests show that we are very far behind where we need to be. So, in per capita terms, we are more or less in sync with other such countries. But if we want to become an upper middle-income country in 10 years, and a higher income country in 25 years, we must rapidly improve the quality of learning and teaching in schools.