'Deteriorating governance may hit growth'

Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Chairman, C Rangarajan, on Wednesday echoed leading personalities saying the deteriorating quality of governance may come in the way of India achieving high growth on a durable basis.

Rangarajan said increasing concern over the quality of governance is a medium-term challenge that poses a risk to India achieving nine per cent growth on a sustainable basis and delivering goods to the public. “We need an administrative system that is efficient, transparent and corruption free, in order to deliver the goods,” Rangarajan said, adding there are increasing concerns about the quality of governance.

Rangarajan, however, added India has the potential to grow by nine per cent on a sustained basis. Both the PMEAC and the Economic Survey have estimated economic growth in the next financial year at 9 per cent, against this financial year’s estimate of 8.6 per cent.

Several leading personalities, including former RBI dovernor Bimal Jalan, had earlier written an open letter to the government, expressing concern over a series of scams and governance deficit.