Structural reforms helping India in building resilience to global shocks: Garg

Structural reforms in areas like taxation and bankruptcy are helping the Indian economy in building resilience to global shocks and maintain a robust growth rate despite challenges, Economic Affairs Secretary S C Garg has said.

He also expressed hope that the prudent policy measures being undertaken now will also help contain the stress, currently seen in financial condition tightening, and oil prices etc.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Friday in Bali, Indonesia, Garg emphasised the need to recognise that digital technological changes taking place are more fundamental than even invention of the steam engine, which had laid the foundation of the industrial revolution.

There is a digital revolution which is transforming the world, he said at the IMF's Development Committee Lunch Session.

The session focused on the World Development Report, which is on the changing nature of work.

Speaking about the Human Capital Index (HCI) that was released recently as part of the Human Capital Project of the World Bank, Garg said human capital needs to continuously evolve and develop.

HCI uses metric of industrial era to measure the status of human capital for digital age and its production system, he said, adding that a better metric is needed.

The World Bank ranked India 115th among 157 countries in its first-ever Human Capital Index (HCI), drawing criticism from the government.

India's neighbours Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka were better placed at 106th, 102nd and 74th position, respectively. The index took into account parameters like child mortality, health and education.