Southern states have to play critical role in India's growth story: Kant

The country's economic growth should rise from the current 7 per cent to at least 10 per cent, which would result in overall increase in the per capita income, former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said

The country's economic growth should rise from the current seven per cent to at least 10 per cent, which would result in overall increase in the per capita income, former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Friday.

The compounding rate is so powerful that if India grows at 9 per cent, the per capita income would be USD 20,000 and if the growth stood at 10 per cent, the per capita income would be USD 30,000, he noted.

"For this growth (7% to 10%) to be achieved, I believe every State should be champions. We need 10 to 12 States to grow at 10 per cent plus to enable other states to also grow.Southern states have to play a key and critical role as they are the best in competition," he said at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, Southern Regional Council Meeting here.

Elaborating, he said in every index that have been conducted -- be it health, education and tourism sector, southern states have always ranked 'Number One'.

"India's growth story has to be driven by the southern region and especially the private sector. Every state has to now become the easiest place of doing business to allow the private sector to invest and grow," Kant also the G20 Sherpa of India, said.

Projecting that over 500 million people would be migrating to urban areas over the next five years, he said, "what is currently happening is unplanned urbanisation whereas one should look at a well-planned urbanisation.. This is a huge opportunity for the private sector to be a part of the new and well-planned cities."

He noted that the sun rise sectors like electric mobility, battery storage, green hydrogen were emerging areas of the growth and the country needs to embrace such sectors and build size and scale.

"The ability to be a global champion is only possible when there is a size and scale of manufacturing of these areas." Kant said and stressed the need to bring down cost of production and for creation of a robust global value chain.

"India must further develop the skills, ability to manufacture, improve logistics, and the ability to turn around ports to make India a truly global leader," he said.