Tharoor, a former Union Minister of State for External Affairs, also said in the context of regional cooperation that India has not been able to achieve much through SAARC because of Pakistan.
Speaking at 'The Growth Net', a discussion on initiatives for and challenges in the path of robust growth, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said that government should push for investment in research and development.
"We have not gone beyond 'frugal innovations', though it has led to Indian companies doing some serious research in coming up with products that not only have improved on the existing ones but also cater to international markets," said Tharoor.
Talking on bilateral and regional trade, Tharoor said that the South Asian neighbourhood has failed to take significant strides in this area due largely to political reasons.
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"We as a country are living in the middle of what the World Bank has described as the least economically-integrated region of the world and that is largely due to political reasons," he said.
Offering a suggestion for increasing workers' productivity, he said that they should be made partners in business to target sustainable economic growth.
"Workers should essentially be given incentives to be more productive; give them direct co-relation to the productivity and allow them to share it," he said.
Emphasising the need for producers to have viable markets, he said, "What worries me most is the decrease in commodity prices. Even as the finance minister talks of decreasing energy prices, the fact is that we are more of producers of commodities than consumers.