Which areas need further improvement?

What will be the next round of reforms in the third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi? In response to this question, Panagariya said that if reform is to be done for the next 10 years, then first of all the labor laws passed in 2019-20 should be implemented. Implementing these labor laws is not a huge task. After this, there are many areas which need reform, like tax. He said that GST needs to be made a little more simple. Income tax also needs to be simplified further. During the second term of PM Narendra Modi, many companies including Air India were privatized, now the government should give more speed to this pace of privatization.

Panagariya stressed that there is a need to bring reforms in the field of higher education also. Higher education in the country is running under the UGC Act of 1956. There is a need to improve this. The government has carried out reforms in medical education, which was being carried out under a similar law of 1956. Its reform was done through the National Medical Commission Act. He said that there is one area where reform has not taken place, we can also say that in this matter we have taken two steps backward, this is the area of ​​land reforms. He said that both public and private sectors are suffering losses due to the land acquisition law.

How important is reform in the agricultural sector?

When NK Singh was asked what the Narendra Modi government can do for labor and land reforms. In response to this question, he said that apart from these two, there is another sector which needs improvement, that is the agriculture sector. There has not been much improvement in this. He said that PM Narendra Modi had declared the year 2024 as ‘Year of Millets’. He stressed the need to diversify agriculture keeping in mind the availability of water and the environment. He said that the production of millets does not require as much water as paddy and wheat. He laid emphasis on cultivation of high protein fruits and poultry. Singh said that PM Modi’s emphasis is on increasing the income of farmers. In such a situation, it is necessary to change the cropping pattern. For this we have to keep in mind the environment, sustainability and health.

NK Singh, Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission.

He said that it is also important to increase the growth rate of GDP to 8-9 percent. For this, it is necessary to bring reforms in labor law, land acquisition law and cost of capital. He said that not much work has been done in this direction. He said that in the last 10 years we have prepared the basis for this. Singh said that states like Gujarat and Maharashtra have taken some steps towards land acquisition, other states should also be encouraged to take similar steps. .

What will be the role of AI in India’s economic reforms?

On the availability of capital, NK Singh said that we all should sit and agree on how to increase financial intermediation. Technology can be a great tool in this. He said that today even an ordinary student understands Artificial Intelligence (AI), hence we should consider its use in governance, health and education. AI will play a big role in the reforms taking place in India. This will also speed up the pace of making India a developed India by 2047.

What is the way to become a developed nation?

On the question of what economic steps need to be taken to make India a developed nation and what are the obstacles coming in this path, Arvind Panagariya said that he does not think that there will be any international obstacles in this path. He said that during the last tenure of Donald Trump, there was a US-China tariff war and after the attack on Ukraine, many types of sanctions were imposed on Russia, despite this the growth of trade in the global economy continued. Panagariya said that similarly we see that before Covid, there was a merchandise export market of 19 trillion dollars and a service sector export market of about six trillion dollars. After Covid, despite all kinds of problems, the merchandise export market increased to 25 trillion dollars and the export market of service sector reached 7 trillion dollars. This export market of Rs 32 trillion is a very big export market. India’s share in this is two percent in merchandise and about four percent in service sector, we can increase it. We have this opportunity. Looking at this, it seems that we are not afraid of any disruption, as far as some disastrous incidents are concerned, not only us but everyone will be affected by it.

Panagariya said that as far as making India a developed nation by 2047 is concerned, it is necessary that our per capita income should be 12800-12900 dollars, this income should be in 2022 dollars. This is also the standard of the World Bank. He said that India’s per capita income was around 2500 dollars in 2022-2023, to increase it to around 13 thousand dollars by 2047, a growth rate of 7.6 percent is required in per capita income. But if we look at our GDP growth, it has been 7.9 percent in real sense. He said that the value of rupee against dollar has increased, hence GDP has increased. Looking at this, we feel that we will achieve this target in the next 25 years and our GDP growth rate will be up to 8 or 8.2 percent. He said that reforms have already been done in many areas.

How important is ‘One Nation, One Election’ for the economy?

When NK Singh was asked that what should we do in this direction, there are obstacles like administrative hurdles, electoral reforms and judicial reforms in the way of achieving the goal of developed India. On this he said that PM Modi has taken steps towards electoral reforms. The government has introduced the ‘One Country, One Election’ bill in Parliament. He himself was a member of the commission that recommended it. If all the elections in the country are held simultaneously, it will have a direct impact on election expenditure, fiscal deficit and government structure. This effect will prove beneficial.

Arvind Panagariya also supported ‘One Country, One Election’. He said that when elections will be held simultaneously in five years, governments will get more time to do their work. He said that Lok Sabha elections were held in June last year, after that elections were held for many assemblies and now elections for two assemblies are to be held in 2025, due to which the governments get less opportunity to work, if all the elections were held simultaneously then it would have been so. It would not have happened and governments would have had more opportunity to work. In such a situation, if ‘One Country, One Election’ is implemented, the state and central governments are going to get huge benefits from it. This will prove to be a big reform. Panagariya said that the voter is very intelligent, he re-elects the governments that work. For this, he gave the example of former Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik and PM Narendra Modi. He said that now governments and political parties are also understanding this. That’s why he is now insisting on working. The Central Government is also getting its benefit.

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