Need to create a ‘Bharatiya development model’

There is a need to develop a tailor-made model of development to suit India’s needs, according to the new Vice-Chairman of Niti Aayog, Rajiv Kumar.

Addressing journalists for after taking charge, Kumar said: “My idea is to make sure that policy making an elitist activity…Niti’s ideas must be to tap into the ground wisdom and realities to make its own policies as we move forward. This will make a ‘Bhartiya Development Model’ that will be in touch with the ground realities.”

This development model will have to first meet the need for generating employment in the country, Kumar added.

#NewsFromNITI : Dr. @RajivKumar1 assumes office as the new Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog pic.twitter.com/IYvIubBYNu

— NITI Aayog (@NITIAayog)

September 1, 2017

In response to a query from

BusinessLine on the sectors that will be the drivers for job creation in the near to medium term, Kumar said, “Technological changes have blurred the boundaries between manufacturing and services. In my understanding, if the economy progresses, some very traditional sectors are going to drive job creation. These are the textile, apparel and handicrafts. We also need to boost job creation in the agro processing industry. In the services sector, tourism is a very labour intensive industry.”

Tech changes

“Changes in automation, robotisation and technical improvements will generate jobs for lakhs of people. An example of this is the e-commerce sector that catalysed the expansion of the logistics sector,” he added.

On demonetisation and its impact on the country’s GDP, Kumar said, “It is wrong to link the slowdown in GDP growth during the April-June quarter of this fiscal to demonetisation. The quarter saw active destocking in anticipation of the Goods and Services Tax…Production had come to a slowdown during that period.”

There was also deflationary effect that affected growth, according to Kumar.

He said, “The WPI (Wholesale Price Index) was negative for a very long time and it became positive in the quarter so the swing was very high…So it will not be right to say that the quarterly growth was hit due to demonetisation.”