India must develop fast to meet the aspirations of people: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who today interacted with eminent economists at NITI Aayog, said India must develop fast, taking advantage of current global environment, to meet the aspirations of the people.

In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Modi noted that one of the objectives of NITI Aayog was to establish a dynamic institutional mechanism where eminent individuals outside the government system could contribute to policy making.

Setting the tone for the interaction, Prime Minister Modi emphasized on the need for cooperative federalism and added that he favoured healthy competition for development among states.

The Prime Minister also spoke of the government's recent initiatives, including the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, direct cash transfer of LPG subsidy and Swachh Bharat.

This was the Prime Minister's first visit to NITI Aayog.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya also made brief opening remarks.

The economists on their part emphasized on the need for the government to work towards high growth, predictable tax regime, fiscal prudence and rapid infrastructure development. A large number of other suggestions were also made on various sectors of the economy.

The economists present at the interaction were Vijay Kelkar, Nitin Desai, Bimal Jalan, Rajiv Lall, R. Vaidyanathan, Subir Gokarn, Parthasarathi Shome, P. Balakrishnan, Rajiv Kumar, Ashok Gulati, Mukesh Butani and G.N. Bajpai.

Bibek Debroy and Dr. V.K. Saraswat, members and CEO, NITI Aayog attended the meeting. Cabinet Secretary, Secretaries of Ministry of Finance, Chief Economic Adviser and other senior officers of the PMO and NITI Aayog were also present.