Subrahmanyam minced no words in highlighting the critical shortcomings of the Indian economy.
He emphasized India’s shortcomings in education and skills, saying this is the most fundamental reform needed, without which everything would be a failure. So much so that “the government should consider handing over training establishments to the private sector”.
The NITI Aayog CEO also took a dig at some of India’s leading public research institutes, saying they were out of touch with ground realities. “We actually created three parallels in education. IRBs and ICARs are ivory towers: R&D in India has nothing to do with teaching, universities have nothing to do with research and both have nothing to do with industry. Can we say that every IRB lab should have a college? The people who are suffering from all of this are the small businesses, the big businesses can hire and train but the small businesses are stuck,” he said.
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Subrahmanyam also highlighted the lack of private investment in the infrastructure sector and acknowledged that government policies will need to change to encourage this. “There is still a lot to do to attract private capital into infrastructure, but it does not exist and we need to find new models to inject private capital.” The NITI CEO said: “Private money is not free, new models of concession agreements and a new way of working with the private sector in infrastructure are needed. The private sector cannot cope with construction delays, political risks and sudden policy changes. »
The NITI Aayog CEO also spoke about refocusing attention on agriculture and increasing India’s participation in global value chains. Subrahmanyam said there was nothing to be proud of as there was still a lot of work to be done. “Agriculture must be targeted and encouraged. In India, agriculture is the sink that absorbs everything. The sector needs a whole host of interventions,” said Subrahmanyam.
Indian industry needs to integrate into global value chains, which would mean low tariffs and low protectionism. Indian industry is not visible in the global value chains of electronics, automobiles and many other things. Let’s not be proud, there is a lot to do, said Subrahmanyam.
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