Govt. pursuing reforms with gusto, say secretaries

"India needs to grow at 9 to 10%, year after year for the next few decades to lift the poor out of the poverty line. In order to make this happen, the government has initiate a slew of reforms and is assiduously working towards ensuring an environment that is conducive for business. These measures would enable India to break in to the top 50 countries on the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Ranking list over the next 2-3 years," said Mr. Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, at FICCI's 88th Annual General Meeting today.

Mr. Shaktikanta Das, Secretary, Economic Affairs, said that there is no choice for the country but to speed up the growth process for which there is a need to put in place certain key enablers. Firstly, given India's demographics, it is important to give a thrust to skill building; otherwise this advantage will turn into a demographic liability. Secondly, reform is a continuous process. The Government has already undertaken reforms related to ease of doing business, introduction of Gold Monetization Scheme and FDI. Going forward, government must continue with this momentum. Thirdly, the Government recognizes the challenges in agriculture and banking sectors and is working towards addressing these. Lastly, it is most critical to kick start the domestic private capital expenditure cycle.

Mr. Das expressed optimism that GST would be in place soon and the Centre and states were fully prepared administratively to take this critical tax reform measure forward.

"India needs to have in place its own growth model, which is sustainable, resource light and carbon light. At this juncture, we have a very good opportunity to fashion our own strategy", said Ms. Aruna Sundarajan, Secretary, Steel. She added there is a need to a thrust to entrepreneurship. Also, greater technology diffusion will be the key to move to a higher growth trajectory. It was now time to deepen the process of reforms and focus on initiating and implementing the next stage of reforms.

Mr. Sanjay Kothari, Secretary (Personnel), said that reforms cannot be done in a single day. Small liberalization and business facilitation measures taken by the government are noteworthy and should be seen holistically. He added that a change in mindset of the people would be necessary to push the reform agenda forward.

Mr. Anup K Pujari, Secretary, MSME, said, "While we already have a lot of good policies on paper, it is the implementation of these policies which is imperative". He added that instilling a feeling of trust among the people was imperative for the successful pursuit of the reform agenda.