Farm Act aftermath: Kant says Centre bent on more reforms across sectors

Says basic philosophy of this govt is that wealth is created by private sector so things must be made easy for them; govt must act as a facilitator and catalyst

Weeks after the Centre repealed the three agriculture acts, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant today said that the going forward India is determined to carry out more reforms across all sectors because the country needs more of them, not less.

Replying to a question on whether the repeal of the three agriculture acts has changed the government’s appetite to do significant reforms, Kant said that on the contrary the government will push for greater levels of reforms across sectors to make things easy and simple.

“The basic philosophy of this government is that wealth is created by the private sector and we have to make things easy for them and the government must act as a facilitator and catalyst and we will continue to push all reforms in that direction,” Kant said while addressing a session on ‘Tracking India’s Reform Journey: The Investment Trajectory,’ at the ongoing CII-Partnership Summit today.

He also said that in a federal polity and in a country as vast as India, which is bigger than many European Countries taken together, one needs to push for change through the states.

“It is therefore we have started a process of ranking states on education, health and recently for SDGs and Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MDPI),” Kant said.

He said the government has started keeping a certain portion of the funds allocated under the Central Sector Schemes (CSS) for good performance of states and we (Centre) should try to ensure increased funding for states that are pursuing the path of reforms for growth.

“The NITI Aayog and DPIIT work together to handhold the states and bring in greater levels of Ease of Doing Business, do away with procedures and regulations,” Kant said. He said the Ease of Doing Business Ranking for states was a way of naming and shaming states to carry out reforms by putting competition in front of the public, where the public in a democracy asks for change.

The farmers' protest on Delhi borders, which lasted more than a year, recently came to an end after the Centre repealed the three farm acts that it had brought about more than a year back.

The acts tried to free outside mandi trade, provide a framework for contract farming and amend the Essential Commodities Act.

The legislation had been mired in controversy since the beginning with a section of growers seeing them as an assault on the MSP-based procurement system while some others felt that they would deal a body blow to the current Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs).

The protesting farmers also alleged that Acts were a way to open the door for big corporations to get into farming.

States such as Punjab have been against the laws on the grounds that the laws were an affront on the state's power.