Former Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia being greeted by Minister for Large and Medium Industries M.B. Patil at ‘Invest Karnataka 2025’ in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
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The nature of reforms needed for India to achieve 8% annual growth for two decades to realise its vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047 have not been clearly spelt out, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former Deputy Chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission, has said.
Mr. Ahluwalia shared these views at a fireside chat with economist and author Salman Anees Soz on ‘Resilient Pathways: Charting Economic Growth Amid Global Challenges’ at the ‘Global Investors’ Meet: Invest Karnataka 2025’ here on Wednesday.
“For India to grow at 8%, its urban population must grow very rapidly,” he opined.
Gandhiji’s ideas now
Gandhiji had said India lived in its villages and many people still regard that as a sort of romantic vision, he said. “I think you have to recognise that India will not be ‘Viksit’ if it does not largely reduce the numbers staying in villages,” he said.
Good Gandhians should recognise that this is not undermining the views of Mahatma Gandhi, who expressed these views 100 years ago but did not mean that it would continue to do so 100 years later, Mr. Ahluwalia said.
He also said geopolitical tensions were on the rise. The U.S. has its own problems not only with its closest allies, such as Canada and Mexico but also with China. China was cosying up to Russia while Russia was becoming more dependent on China. Europeans were very scared of Russia, and they were not that bothered about China, he observed.
Carving out new States
Mr. Ahluwalia also advocated carving out two or three States from large States such as Uttar Pradesh to give a new impetus to urbanisation. He suggested picking up some tier-II towns and developing them into “near-metros”. “We should seriously consider cutting down many of the larger States into two or three,” he suggested.
Mr. Ahluwalia recalled that former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP leader Mayawati had suggested splitting her State into three. Had this been done, there would have been a political willingness instantly to create three new good cities, he said. “People have said this could be done in many other States. In Maharashtra, for example, there are people who said that the Vidarbha region should be made a separate State with Nagpur as its capital,” he added.
According to him, earlier in 1991, initiating reforms was easy because the world was speaking one language. “We started the reforms after Eastern Europe had abolished communism… There was only one thing to do which was integrating with the global market. That has become much more complex now,” he said.
Published – February 12, 2025 10:14 pm IST
