Letters: Balancing for growth

This refers to Andy Mukherjee's article "Restoring federal balance"(January 28). This revealing analysis of fiscal management has come at the right time, because Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, now preparing his first full-fledged Budget, has the chance to factor in some of the suggestions made by the writer.

For policy-makers in Delhi, the replacement of the Planning Commission by the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog is a god-sent opportunity to take financial planning to the states and ultimately, to the grass-roots level.

The sustenance and growth of India as a country, in the long term, will depend on inclusive growth across geographies and vertically across the rich upper class, middle class and the majority that belong to the class below these two.

The good thing is that - if events such as the rise of the Aam Aadmi Party in 2013 and 'Mann ki Baat' shared between Narendra Modi and Barack Obama on January 27 are any indication - awareness about all this is building up fast. Developments in the last year or so in the country need to be viewed from this perspective. The Centre can ill-afford to miss this chance to bring 'prosperous' and 'poor' states on the same page. It needs to demonstrate the will to share resources equitably and to support economic development across geographies and populations.

M G Warrier Thiruvananthapuram

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