Upliftment of aspirational districts can help India grow at 9-10% for three decades: Kant

Upliftment of over 100 aspirational districts can propel India to achieve a growth rate of 9-10 per cent for up to 30 years as it is imperative to have equity for growth to sustain, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said Monday.

As part of the NITI Aayog's vision, the 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' programme aims to quickly and effectively transform these 115 districts.

"It is very important to focus on nutrition, learning outcomes and health. The prime minster's focus is on the 115 aspirational districts of India...you can't have growth without equity, Kant said at the Rising India Summit here.

If these aspirational districts are transformed, the Indian economy will automatically have a growth of 9-10 per cent over the next three decades.

The broad contours of the programme are convergence of central and state government schemes, collaboration of central, state level 'Prabhari' officers and district collectors, and competition among districts driven by a mass movement.

With states as the main drivers, this programme focuses on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.

Talking about the pharma sector during the summit, Kant said that India entrepreneurship in the pharmacy sector has been truly top-class.

"India has demonstrated its ability, and Ayushman Bharat is a great example of that. You will providing health facility to 500 million people, more than the population of USA, Europe, Mexico put together. India has demonstrated its ability to provide medical health care at one-tenth the cost over the European and the American nations and that's a great example," he said.

Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said healthcare sector offers enormous opportunities for growth and for welfare.

"I think it is very important. Ayushman Bharat, the whole of idea is to provide the kind of human capital improvement as well as the infrastructure improvement in the country for the health sector," Garg said.

He said the health sector in the country already enjoys infrastructure status and if something is missing or required, the government is ready to provide for that.

Government's ambitious scheme Ayushman Bharat, which was renamed the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyan (PMJAY), aims to provide a coverage of Rs 5 lakh per family annually, benefiting more than 10 crore poor families.