The Hindu Business Line : `Allow private sector in agriculture to achieve 8.1 pc GDP growth'

THE domestic private sector should be allowed to enter all areas of agriculture, including cultivation, independent of Government policies, if "we have to achieve the projected 8.1 per cent GDP growth in the Tenth Plan period." Private sector participation will be particularly a good thing for wastelands development.

Participating in an interactive session on the country's GDP growth prospects, organised by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce here, Dr Nitish Sengupta, former Revenue Secretary and Plan Panel Member and ex-member of Parliament (Lok Sabha), said if supply chain logistics, so vital for agriculture, had to improve dramatically, the private sector should be encouraged to enter any area of Indian agriculture they desire.

Excessive Government control, particularly in the SSI sector, should be discouraged. "Government should stop tinkering with industry, and there is an urgent need to get rid of this `No' philosophy, when it comes to any fruitful economic activity," he said.

Pointing out that India had the potential to emerge as the food basket of the world, Dr Sengupta said: "Our agriculture is no longer dependent on vagaries of weather, as in the past, though our full potential is still untapped." He said the prospects for attracting foreign direct investment into India are more favourable now than before.

According to Dr Sengupta, the Government should concentrate on infrastructure development through the public-private partnership route and devote attention to health and education, arguably the priority sectors for any Government. There had been a total neglect of elementary education in this country, he pointed out.

He said while it was okay to emulate the Chinese efficiency in terms of industrialisation, "our functioning democracy was still better."

Earlier, Mr H. V. Patodia, Vice-President of the Chamber, said the state of the Indian economy, as emerging from the mid-term appraisal presented a mixed picture, where revival in industrial growth, higher private corporate sector investment and successes in software and IT enabled services were viewed as huge positives.