Johannesburg: India’s developmental experiences could be a template for other countries, Chief Economic Adviser to the government V Anantha Nageswaran said here.
Nageswaran was the keynote speaker at the seminar organised jointly on Tuesday by the Indian High Commission, the Consulate General in Johannesburg and the CII India Business Forum.
“India is a country with the largest population trying to transform itself into a developed nation within the context of a democratic polity and also within the context of a federal governance structure. Therefore, India’s experiences will be very useful templates for many countries, including (South Africa),” Nageswaran said.
“India will forever be a land of excitement, opportunities and a land where many public policy paradigms are created for other countries to learn from as we journey from three trillion to 13 trillion in the next 25 years,” he added as he reflected on the Viksit Bharat plans.
Nageswaran also suggested the new global environment needed a changed approach to partnerships. “At no other time since the last world war do countries need to lean on each other as much as now,” he said.
“We need to be agnostic and open-minded. We cannot therefore choose but rather be opportunistic in forming partnerships because the world is now in a phase of churn. We are moving from one equilibrium to another and we should not lock ourselves into positions.
“It does not mean that we shift convictions and focus of convenience but it is about being creative in our partnerships and identifying areas where there is commonality, putting aside our areas of differences for consideration at a later date,” Nageswaran said.
Admitting that this might sound philosophical, he said it is also pragmatic. “Ultimately when we have goals for the economy, we should remember that these outcomes are influenced by various factors beyond our control. What is within our control is the efforts that we can take to achieve Viksit Bharat.
“The outcomes will be subject to global factors, but what the Government of India has been trying to do in the last ten years and will continue to do in the next ten years also is to put in place the building blocks that will take us to Viksit Bharat,” Nareswaran said.
“Whenever circumstances turn propitious, these efforts, such as building infrastructure, deregulation, governance change investing in education and skilling and making India’s MSMEs a viable component of the economic system, will eventually create the conditions for driving economic growth in the country towards its aspiration of being a developed nation by 2047,” he concluded.