NEW DELHI

03 August 2019 05:15 IST

Amitabh Kant attributes downshift to spate of measures including GST, RERA and IBC

A spate of reforms undertaken by the government has led to the current slowdown in the country, Amitabh Kant, the CEO of policy think-tank NITI Aayog, said on Friday. This came as a note of caution from the senior official as he was advocating a series of policy decisions to revive the economy.

Greater liquidity

“Firstly, you need to bring in greater levels of liquidity. Secondly, you need to revive the animal spirit of the private sector, you can never create wealth without the private sector. Thirdly, the government needs to get out of business in a range of areas and you need to recycle a lot of government assets such as roads. We have done this with airports. Gas grids, gas pipelines, transmission lines should be privately-owned. NITI Aayog has recommended a vast range of public sector for privatisation. Once we have private sector coming in, bank credit will start flowing in and this is critical. Fourthly, we must push for major structural reforms as we did earlier,” Mr. Kant said at a Bloomberg NEF summit held in New Delhi.

“One of the reasons for the slowdown is that it has had too much of reforms — GST, IBC, RERA — a huge set of reforms which we have undertaken and I think the next round of reforms must revolve around sectors like oil and gas, mining, coal. We must commercialise coal mining, railways and they will really drive the growth in India,” he said.

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Talking about the government’s push for electric vehicles in the country, the NITI Aayog CEO said that the government would work to develop India as a hub for manufacture and export of EVs.

“We have lost out on the mobile revolution, photo-voltaic revolution, telecom equipment revolution. We are a nation of massive domestic demand, but all this demand we import. We will not allow that to happen in the EV [electric vehicle] world.

“We will ensure that India becomes a global hub for manufacturing and exports,” Mr. Kant said at the summit in New Delhi. Bloomberg NEF released a report on the future of mobility in India and has forecast that India may become the fourth-largest passenger EV market by 2040 with 26 lakh vehicles. China, U.S. and Germany will top the table.