Concerned over the economic slowdown, the RBI Governor, Dr D. Subbarao, has outlined the 10 challenges to keeping India’s growth story intact and asserted that “providing good governance” would be critical in this regard.
There may be several challenges to acceleration of growth, he said, adding that identification of these areas and drawing up plans to address them is the relatively easy part.
“What is infinitely more difficult is the translation of those policies into action,” he said.
Delivering P N Haksar Memorial Lecture here, he said: “In the ultimate analysis, it is the quality of governance that separates success and failure in economic development...”
Among the 10 challenges, he said it would be imperative to bring inflation down to 5 per cent or even lower to regain the growth momentum and accelerate the rate further.
He said a high inflation scenario makes both savers and investors uncertain and there is a need for a stable macroeconomic environment.
Emphasising on the importance of a stable macroeconomic environment, he said the fiscal deficit needs to be controlled and inflation must come down.
“The first is reduction of fiscal deficits... The second task is to bring inflation down first to 5 per cent and then even lower (for stable macro-economic environment)...,” he said.
The governor said the current inflationary woes are a consequence of both supply shocks and demand pressures.
Maintaining that the RBI’s monetary tightening policy has been aimed at restricting demand and anchoring inflationary expectations, he said, “This has to be supplemented by supply side responses to raise the potential output of the economy.”
The central bank has raised key policy rates by 350 basis points since March 2010, in a bid to bring down inflation, which has been hovering near double digits for almost a year now.
India’s GDP growth rate has been projected at 8.5 per cent in 2010-11, but there are apprehensions that it may slip below 8 per cent due to the global economic turmoil, coupled with high inflation and interest rates in the country.
The Union Cabinet took a major decision yesterday to permit FDI in the multi-brand retail sector.
The Government has maintained that FDI in the sector will help improve supply side bottlenecks, as the country currently wastes perishable food items worth Rs 1 lakh crore annually due to lack of processing facilities.
Dr Subbarao said stepping up agriculture production and productivity is a challenge as “our quest for inclusive growth will be jeopardised if we are not able to address the root causes of structural food inflation’’.
He said expanding employment is also a major challenge to making growth inclusive.
Talking about the recently unveiled National Manufacturing Policy, he said, “To exploit the full job potential of this emphasis on manufacturing, we need to liberalise our labour laws and employment regulations...”
Other challenges highlighted by the Governor include bridging the infrastructure deficit, managing urbanisation and improving social sector outcomes.