India needs to try become indispensable like China: CEA Nageswaran

Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) to the Indian government, V Anantha Nageswaran, on Tuesday said the country needs to prioritise areas like manufacturing, education, and employment generation to become a developed nation by 2047 and become indispensable like China.

Nageswaran, delivering a lecture on the topic 'Global Economic Trends India's Challenges and Prospect' at the Raj Bhavan here, said that in the next couple of decades there will be a unpredictable, volatile and dangerous geo-political environment in the world and the geo-economic is going to be uncertain.

So, the priority areas for India in the next 20-25 years should be education, skilling, good mental and physical health of the population, energy affordability and transition, rise of manufacturing, food security, increasing agriculture productivity, generating employment and increasing the rate of investments, he said.

Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, who presided over the event, said that 'Viksit Bharat' will be a reality by 2047 as asserted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He also said that Raj Bhavan should not be just for the Governor, it should be a 'Lok Bhavan' -- for the people of the state. "So, all people should be invited for many occasions," he said.

Nageswaran, giving details of what the nation has achieved, said that the country was able to double its initial goal of generating 8 million jobs per year in the last two years, but a large percentage of its population was facing health problems like obesity and mental distress, including suicidal tendencies.

Nageswaran said that the health issues can be addressed by being careful about what we eat, reducing screen time, having outdoor activities and increasing family connection. 

"So, it is not the job of the governments in the country alone, but each of us also have a role to play in ensuring the demographic dividend is realised," he said.

On the issue of energy transition, he said that the developed nations of the world achieved that status by depending on non-renewable sources of energy like oil and coal, but now want other nations to move away from the same in the name of global warming and climate change.

But, everything we use needs more energy and at the same time we cannot use the cheaper forms of energy like coal due to pollution concerns, he said.

On the other hand, renewable sources of energy like solar and wind are intermittent and the more we introduce them into the power grid, we cannot predict what will happen, he added.

"The grids are not ready for the intermittency," he contended.

The CEA also said that increasing dependency on solar panels and electric vehicles will lead to the country's dependence on China -- a source of components for these.

He said that just like China has made itself indispensable, India too should try to achieve the same.

On the investment aspect, he said that global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) was coming down, but India was not likely to be affected as it is a top destination for FDI.

With regard to increasing manufacturing, he said that state governments need to change their rules to facilitate spreading of factories and industrial units, instead of concentrating them in urban centres.

"Deregulation is the key to MSME growth, rise in manufacturing and generation of employment. The more you deregulate, the more the industrial activity picks up in the state. There are studies which show the positive impact of deregulation," he contended.

Agricultural productivity can be improved by increasing irrigation coverage and land consolidation, he said.

Nageswaran said that for India to overcome these challenges, action has to be taken not just at the level of the policy makers, but the citizens also have a role to play in it.