New Delhi: Expressing concern over the slowing growth of the Indian economy, Indian-American Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee in an exclusive interview to CNBC-TV18 said that the government should make policies which work and not policies which they imagine will work.
Banerjee, who on Monday won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize along with two others for his work in fighting global poverty, told CNBC-TV18’s Latha Venkatesh that the “Indian economy is on a shaky ground” and “the government should do pilots of policy initiatives more carefully”.
His statement on policy initiatives came just days after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman conceded there were “flaws” in the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. ‘It might probably give you difficulties but I am sorry, it’s the ‘kanoon’ (law) of the country now,” she had said.
Banerjee has also been critical of the Narendra Modi government’s demonetisation exercise previously, telling News18.com in a 2017 interview that he did not understand the logic behind it.
The 58-year-old Jawaharlal Nehru alumnus praised some of the government initiatives, saying that NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), a UPA-era scheme, was a solid success, while the rural roads program (PMGSY) has been effective.
He also appreciated the idea behind the PM-Kisan scheme, saying that the idea to move away from support prices towards income transfers was “sensible”, but the amount is not huge. Under the PM-Kisan scheme, farmers are given Rs 6,000 per annum in three instalments.
Speaking on what ails the Indian economy, Banerjee said that data suggests that rate of growth of income in rural areas has fallen a lot since 2014. “…Huge part of unskilled jobs in India are in real estate. As construction slows down rural income growth comes to a halt,” he said.
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Source: News18