A blueprint for inclusive & sustained growth

Contrary to what some have said, NITI Aayog's 'Strategy for New India @75' attempts to provide a framework for making development a mass movement

It has been gratifying to see the response to NITI Aayog’s ‘Strategy for New India @75’ (henceforth Strategy), which was released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on December 19, 2018. Arun Maira writing in The Hindu (December 27), while emphasising that the “shape of growth matters” also lauds the document for changing the “... approach to planning from preparation of plans and budgets to the creation of a mass movement for development in which every Indian recognises her role and experiences the tangible benefits.” Similarly, Madan Sabnavis (Business Standard, December 20) finds the focus on agriculture to be well taken and the Strategy having provided useful sign posts that should be followed by time-bound action plans for achieving them. Most importantly, the Strategy has triggered a spate of commentaries and discussion in the public domain on the pace, direction and shape of economic growth in the coming years. NITI Aayog’s focus on rapid, greener, employment-intensive and more formal growth, as spelled out in the Strategy has been welcomed by several experts and economists. 

However, some, like Rathin Roy (RR, Business Standard, December 26) are baffled about the timing of the document “… so late in the lifetime of this government.” I had hoped that my friend RR would have realised that the Strategy that aims to put India on a qualitatively superior development paradigm, can be and should be government agnostic. Its intention is to enrich the public discourse on development and involve the largest number of stakeholders in its preparation. 

Moreover, RR has conveniently chosen to overlook the crucial distinction between the government’s think tank and line ministries. The line ministries, having agreed to targets and the way forward, as presented in the Strategy, will formulate time-bound action plans and ensure their effective implementation. It is certainly unreasonable and perhaps dysfunctional to suggest that a single document would contain action plans for all ministries and sectors. In fact, it was a conscious choice to limit the length of each of the 41 chapters and provide an outline of measures required and leave it to the line ministries to implement them. State governments, who have extensively commented on the Strategy will hopefully also use this to draw up their own development blueprints. 

Some observers have found the Strategy to be utopian in its emphasis on establishing a "development state" in the country that takes on the responsibility of efficient delivery of a clutch of public services. Similarly, its target of doubling exports in the next five years or indeed for its focus on doubling farmers’ incomes has been seen by some as infeasible. This is criticism for the sake of it. These observers have perhaps not noticed the massive effort that the government led by the Prime Minister has made in making the government more responsible, transparent and accountable. The Strategy has merely tried to emphasise that this stupendous effort, if sustained over the coming years, will result in putting in place the much-needed development state. Abdication of its mandated role by the state and handing over its functions to the private sector, as was done by earlier governments, is a recipe for uneven, unequal and unsatisfactory growth. This is unacceptable. 

NITI Aayog’s Strategy points to the alternative path in which the state facilitates the growth of private enterprise and innovation while ensuring that those at the end of the queue or the bottom of the pyramid are looked after efficiently and effectively by the state through more efficient delivery of public services. 

The Strategy also suggests specific measures for promoting growth of the dairy and the horticulture sectors, essential for diversifying sources of farmers’ incomes

The Strategy suggests a range of very specific measures. For example, it does not merely call for raising the investment to GDP ratio to 36 per cent, which will help achieve 9 per cent growth. It also asks for tax to GDP ratio to be raised from 17 per cent to 22 per cent along with raising private investment and ramping up household and public savings, which are both eminently possible and desirable. In this context, there is also a focus on enhancing our effort at mobilising non-tax revenues by expediting disinvestment. This level of detail should suffice for designing a plan of action for the next five years for which the NITI Aayog will now of course work together with all relevant departments. 

A similar level of detail for the way forward is evident in a host of other chapters. The three chapters on doubling farmers’ income have recommendations ranging from the abolition of the essential Commodities Act to the adoption of zero-budget natural farming and including measures like doing away with export bans and creating collection centres at the village level. We also suggest specific measures for promoting growth of the dairy and the horticulture sectors, which is essential for diversifying sources of farmers’ incomes. The Strategy calls for transforming Indian agriculture to a modern value chain and converting farmers from mere commodity producers to ‘agropreneurs’ who benefit from value addition and market diversification. It has been quite heartening to receive positive feedback from a large number of stakeholders who have noticed the Strategy’s focus on specific measures rooted in ground realities in place of ideological and abstract recommendations that have often characterised approach and planning documents of yesteryears.

The Strategy is a fairly unique document given its comprehensive nature on the one hand and focus on specific implementable measures on the other. It has for the first time chosen to put forward a development blueprint that is not burdened either with technical jargon or with dubious quantification based on closed economy assumptions or ideological predilections. Yes, it does not provide detailed time-bound plans of action. This is in deference to the mandate of state governments and line ministers, with which NITI Aayog works in close cooperation. Contrary to what some have said, the Strategy attempts to provide a framework for making development a mass movement that will see a new India emerging as it reaches the 75th year of its independence.

The author is vice-chairman, NITI Aayog