Economic Survey envisages promising growth outlook; ease of doing business: PHD Chamber

Dr Mahesh Gupta, President, PHDCCI

While appreciating the robust performance of Indian economy, Dr. Mahesh Gupta, President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry said in a press statement issued here today that despite the global headwinds, economy holds immense growth potential to grow more than 8% in the next couple of years.

We are proud that India is becoming the fastest growing major economy in the world. Government’s commitment to carry the reform process forward is highly encouraging and indicate that the double digit growth trajectory is not far away, said Dr. Gupta.

Economy is making great achievement in ease of doing business vis-a-vis removing barriers to entry for businesses, he added.

However, lot needs to be done in the ease of doing business as the economy is moving from socialism to marketism without exit policy. Creating a more captive environment would be critical to address the exit problem which affects the performance of businesses and economy, said Dr. Gupta.

We appreciate achievements in the power sector in last two years; record generation capacity with reforms in discoms and developments in renewable energy are really appreciable.

We believe time is most opportune to allow industries with higher power demands to absorb excess generation capacity through open access to strengthen Make in India programme.  

We believe agriculture sector needs a greater transformation to improve livelihoods of the farmers and to achieve food security, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta

Raising productivity in agriculture by investing in efficient irrigation technologies and efficient use of inputs would be critical to improve the state of farm sector, he said.

There is urgent need to rationalize agricultural policies including subsidies by making them ‘input-crop and region-neutral’ to improve productivity in agriculture.

Water productivity needs to be enhanced through tapping harvesting and recycling water, efficient on farm management practices, micro irrigation, use of waste water and resource conservation technologies, added Dr. Gupta.

We appreciate the performance of social sector schemes of the government particularly the women empowerment.

We are pleased to know that women account for 57% of employment given under MGNREGA in the current financial year.

There is a need to increase investments in health and education of people to exploit India’s demographic dividend to optimal level, added Dr. Gupta.

We believe supply side factors for the Indian economy are very crucial, so the focus must be on timely and uninterrupted supply.

It is worrying that India has the second highest number of undernourished people. We have to have a greater focus on this problem to build a healthy and strengthened India, added Dr. Gupta

We appreciate government’s efforts in controlling inflation.

Astute policies and management of inflation by the government through buffer stocking, timely release of cereals and import of pulses had helped in keeping prices of essential commodities under check during 2015-16, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta

It is inspiring to know that India is increasingly becoming strong in the production of perishables and protein contain food items.

India ranks first in milk production and accounts for 18.5% of world production. The per capita availability of milk in India has increased from 176 grams per day in 1990-91 to 322 grams per day by 2014-15. 

Overall, state of the Indian economy is inspiring and we look forward to a dynamic budget announcement to pave way for strong and sustainable growth environment with a greater ease of doing business, said Dr. Mahesh Gupta.