India can register 8% growth: Niti VC

New Delhi: India has the potential to grow at 8 per cent as the country is labour-rich with enough institutional maturity of a functioning democracy, Niti Aayog vice chairman Suman Bery said on Thursday.

Bery also cautioned that North India has not been doing well traditionally compared to South India, and this can create tensions in a federal polity. "So, 8 per cent growth or something approximating that means continuous change that needs to be politically managed," he said while addressing the Global Economic Policy Forum 2023, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the finance ministry.

According to Bery, the modernisation journey of India is unusual and unique. "And if I wanted to bet on India for the next 25 years, I would point to first, the fact that we are not labour constrained in a world which is increasingly labour constrained. But much more importantly...we have the institutional maturity of a functioning democracy with established rules of the game for the transfer of power we have just seen magnificently in the state elections," he added.

Bery noted that economic growth in a country like India is a prerequisite for equity. "So, growth is not an end in itself, but it is a means to an end to raise living standards and secure India's strategic and institutional economy," he said.

Bery pointed out that India is the fastest-growing major economy but still the lowest per capita income country in the G20. "Growth needs to be both inclusive as well as pro-people, and women-led growth will be critical for attaining positive outcomes. "The challenge is to use the mature institutional democratic structure of India to realise its potential in the Amrit Kaal," the Niti Aayog vice chairman said.

He emphasised that growth must be prioritised to achieve domestic and international objectives of higher living standards and securing India's strategic and institutional economy. Bery also said it is important to strike the right balance between facilitation and regulation at the Union and state levels to realise India's potential. "It is important to link both the personal as well as spatial dimensions of inequality," he said and highlighted the importance of effective regional policies in this regard. It is critical to build India's growth momentum on the basis of its natural endowments, he added.