RBI Guv seeks big push to infra, education, healthcare

New Delhi: Shaktikanta Das, Governor, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Wednesday underlined the need for a big push to infrastructure investment, education and digital economy to achieve sustainable growth and generate jobs in smaller cities.

"As we recover (from the pandemic), we must deal with the legacies of the crisis and create conditions for strong, inclusive and sustainable growth. Limiting the damage that the crisis inflicted was just the first step; our endeavour should be to ensure durable and sustainable growth in the post-pandemic future," Das said.

The governor made these comments while speaking at the 48th AIMA National Management Convention through video conferencing.

Sustainable growth, Das said, should entail building on macro fundamentals via medium-term investments, sound financial systems and structural reforms.

"Towards this objective, a big push to investment in healthcare, education, innovation, physical and digital infrastructure will be required. We should also continue with further reforms in labour and product markets to encourage competition and dynamism, and to benefit from the pandemic induced opportunities," he said.

In addition, the warehouse and supply-chain infrastructure will be critical to bolstering value addition and productivity in the agriculture and horticulture sector, Das said, adding this will create employment opportunities in semi-urban and rural areas and promote inclusive growth. The production linked incentive (PLI) scheme announced recently by the government for certain sectors was an important initiative to boost the manufacturing sector, he said, adding the gains were likely to be durable and not a one-off.

Noting that the pandemic has affected the poor and the vulnerable more in emerging and developing countries, Das said, "Our endeavour should be to ensure livable and sustainable growth in the post-pandemic future.

Restoring the durability of private consumption, which has remained historically the mainstay of aggregate demand will be very crucial going forward".

More importantly, sustainable growth should entail meeting on macro fundamentals via medium-term investments, sound financial systems and structural reforms, he added.

Needless to add that inclusive growth in the post-pandemic world will require cooperation and participation of all stakeholders, Das said, adding collaborative effort of various stakeholders is helping accomplish a seemingly difficult task of accelerating the pace of vaccination.