Big-ticket reforms are not our priority: Arun Maira

Planning Commission member says that focus will be on administration and investment issues

Big-ticket reforms were not the priority at present, said Arun Maira, member, Planning Commission. He said now the focus would be on administrative and investment issues.

Speaking on the sidelines of an Industrial Relations event by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here, Maira questioned whether these 'reforms' would bring the desired results. "Does it even matter? This is not our priority at this point," he said. He also added it would not be easy to pass these big-ticket contentious reforms.

Increase of foreign direct investment cap in insurance sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent is one of the most-awaited reforms. Maira added that the plan to implement the national manufacturing policy (NMP) had been formulated. This would show results after a five-year period and would enable India to achieve a growth of nine per cent.

Referring to the recently released numbers on Index of Industrial Production (IIP), he said that they were not ‘good enough’ and that the manufacturing sector had been affected by the epidemic of things being stuck. He added that states should also be conscious of whether the present investments are productive, before scouting for additional investment. IIP for May contracted by 1.6 per cent, a 11-month low, as mining output continued to fall and manufacturing failed to grow.

Implementation issues, he said, had been noticed in the manufacturing sector, where plans have not been executed. “Unless these bottlenecks are addressed, the gross domestic product (GDP) will not bounce back; neither will new investment come in nor existing investment will show results,” he said.

At this juncture, human resources was cited by him as the biggest asset of the country. Skilling the man-power would boost the Indian economy.