Arvind Panagariya sees good monsoon and reforms pushing growth to 8% this year
NEW DELHI: India's economy will accelerate to 8 per cent growth in the current financial year thanks to a good monsoon, policy reforms and PM
Narendra Modi's focus on implementation at the grassroots level,
Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman
Arvind Panagariya told ET in an interview. And, unlike most others, he also sees private investment doing better this year.
He also said India has strongly opposed the language of the draft on intellectual property protection to be taken up at the upcoming
G20 meeting in Beijing, signalling the government's firm stand against any move by developed nations to undermine the flexibility the country enjoys under the existing multilateral regime. The eminent economist is also India's Sherpa at G20.
Panagariya expects growth to hasten from 7.6 per cent in FY16.
"I feel we should cross 8 per cent because nothing I see takes away from what we had last year," Panagariya said. "Good monsoon is a big mood lifter and so are the series of reforms carried out though they have a lag effect."
Private investment should also pick up this year. "You will begin to see a little turnaround in the sectors that were really down, for example steel and construction sector. It is not obviously upbeat but these sectors are getting out of that mood," he said.
While the prime minister's focus is on execution and implementation, changes in land and labour laws will happen only when the government has numbers in the Rajya Sabha, where it currently lacks a majority.
"These have to happen through states," he added, while pointing out that some states were already framing progressive labour and land laws.
With regard to G20, he said India has maintained that its policy on intellectual property rights (IPR) is consistent with the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
According to Panagariya, the IPR framework being proposed at G20 is not TRIPS-plus in the explicit sense but there is some language that could be subject to interpretation and the view is not to leave any room for ambiguity.
"There is a certain flexibility that we have under the TRIPS agreement and anything that dilutes that flexibility is not acceptable to India," Panagariya said ahead of the G20 summit in China on September 4-5. "Right now, these documents have some language where people in
DIPP (Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion) feel that it impinges a bit. We have to fight it out at the summit."
In recent years, developing countries have faced pressure to include restrictive conditions in patent laws other than those required by the TRIPS agreement. These are known as TRIPS plus provisions. Also, the US has repeatedly raised concerns over India's patent regime.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...rowth-to-8-this-year/articleshow/53918645.cms
