Dr. Arvind Panagariya at the ‘Ideas of India’ Summit 3.0

Mumbai, February 24, 2024: With “The People’s Agenda” at the Ideas of India Summit 3.0, Dr. Arvind Panagariya, Chairperson, 16th Finance Commission, shared his views on "The Economic Whisperer: How to Fuel Growth with Jobs."
 

Speaking about the old India and the new India, Dr. Arvind Panagariya, said, “I used to be very pessimistic about India in 1980s. Things changed in 1991. We have had upside down but the trend has been towards liberalization. If we take away COVID years, we have grown about 8.8% in real dollars for past 20 years, which we could not imagine in 1980s.”
 

Offering economic perspectives on fostering growth while addressing unemployment, Dr. Arvind Panagariya, said, “The conditions are perfectly there for India to take the world by storm. India is now the only economy, which is growing strongly.”
 

“Unemployment is not really a problem for India; underemployment is. The challenge is creating well-paid, high productivity jobs.” Dr. Arvind Panagariya said talking about jobs.

Highlighting the power of India’s population, Dr.  Arvind Panagariya, said,  “The population is large and the population is young. The size of population will help us. We don’t have that kind of dependency ratios as China has.”
 

Dr. Panagariya, added, “We are a labour abundant country and a capital scarce country. We have put most of our capital in a few selective, capital-intensive sectors. A lot of workers are working in sectors, like agriculture and MSME, that have very low capital.” 
 

Sharing his view on manufacturing versus services debate, Dr. Arvind Panagariya said, “There’s no escaping manufacturing. There’s no country which has grown on services. Semiconductors manufacturing is important from the perspective of National Security.”
 

“In India, building consensus is a part of the democratic reform process, which makes passing laws a slower process.” Dr. Arvind Panagariya said, and also remarked, “During Vajpayee’s Prime Ministership labour laws were tabled. Subsequently, no government showed the courage. With Modi Government, the laws have been passed. It is now the states that have to write the rules and regulations to implement the laws.”
 

Talking about reforms, Dr. Panagariya added “Implementation of labour laws, privatization of public sector enterprises and banks are some of the important reforms that need to be brought about.”
 

Sharing his love for India, Dr. Arvind Panagariya, said “Coming back to India has always been invigorating. I used to keep coming back and cannot stay away from India.”
 

A Professor of Economics, Arvind Panagariya has served as the first Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, He also served as India’s G20 Sherpa and led the Indian teams that negotiated the G20 Communiqués during presidencies of Turkey (2015), China (2016) and Germany (2017). Professor Panagariya has also been a Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank.