09 Apr 2015|Noida | Amity Campus
National Seminar on “India’s Economic Health: Major Issues” at Amity
Economists deliberate upon measures to attain 10% GDP growth during a National Seminar on“India’s Economic Health: Major Issues” at Amity
In order to discuss the maladies afflicting Indian economy and to suggest the way out, Amity School of Business (ASB) organized a day long National Seminar on “India’s Economic Health: Major Issues” at University Campus, Sector- 125, Noida.
Mr. Sudhir Sinha, Advisor, PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Limited, Gurgaon; Dr Anand P Gupta, Former Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad & Director, Economic Management Institute, Delhi; Dr B. P. Singh, Former Professor, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi; Dr. (Mrs.) B Shukla- Vice chancellor, Amity University and Prof. S K Sharma- Director, Amity School of Business inaugurated the Seminar.
Welcoming the distinguished gathering, Prof. S K Sharma- Director,Amity School of Business thanked the erudite speakers and guests for taking out time and enlightening the budding managers with their knowledge and vast experience. Talking about the theme of the Seminar, he stressed that Indian economy needs huge capital if it has to grow continuously, which cannot be provided domestically alone. The Government needs to frame liberal FDI policies to increase FDI flows from developed countries. He opined that India has an opportunity to become one of the world’s most dynamic economies, provided it bolsters up manufacturing sector, boost critical infrastructure like roads, ports, power and railways,strengthen the education system and its reach especially rural India; create more jobs and ensures meaningful livelihood for the youth and encourage entrepreneurship ventures through supportive ecosystem.
Addressing the gathering, the Chief Guest Mr. Sudhir Sinha, Advisor, PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Limited, Gurgaon applauded the aptness andtopicality of the theme of the Seminar. Providing a layman’s perspective of the economy, Mr. Sinha said that there is a dichotomy between rural and urban India; on one hand, urban India is growing and prospering and on the other hand, rural India has limited access to even basic amenities such as road,electricity, education and job related opportunities. He stressed that economic health has to percolate down from macro-economy to micro-economy. He remarked that education is an enabler and the quality of education has to be improved in India so that it could help students to get jobs or start entrepreneurship activities. He shared that everyone in China has a manufacturing mindset whereas in India, most of the entrepreneurs have become traders, exporting parts from China and assembling in India. Sharing his concern, he added that Agriculture, which is the mainstay of Indian economy, is declining and so is its contribution to the GDP of the country, adding to the gravity of the situation is the fact that agriculture employs 51% of the labour force of the country. The situation is worsened to the extent that 63% of the farmers would like to leave agriculture provided they get some other source of livelihood and 37% of farmers don’t want their children to get into agriculture. He called for making India free of corruption and un-employability in order to put its economy in high growth trajectory.
Providing an economist point of view and sharing important figures, Dr B. P. Singh, Former Professor, Delhi School of Economics,University of Delhi outlined that India’s GDP growth rates have declined drastically from 8.06 % in 2009-12 to 4.74 % in 2013-14; Agricultural growth has witnessed a sharp upsurge from 1.42 % in 2012-13 to 4.71 % in 2013-14 whereas Services growth has suffered a mild setback from 6. 96% in 2012-13 to 6.78% in 2013-14. He enumerated various education sector related challenges faced by Indian economy including shortage of teachers and faculty members at school and college level, unskilled youth and disconnect between industry and academia. He shared that India is witnessing a perplexing time of contradictions wherein on one hand, it has the youngest population in the world with 12 million youth adding to the labor force every year and on the other hand, the current size of India’s formally skilled workforce is meager 2%, as per the report of Labour Bureau Report (2014). He stressed that by 2030 India is expected to become third largest economy, presenting huge investment opportunities as well as gigantic challenges including non-conducive business environment, lack of adequate infrastructure, project bottlenecks. He suggested that Indian Government has to bring in a series of reforms to renew and strengthen the investors’ confidence in India and its growing economy.
Sounding the alarm bell, Dr Anand P Gupta, Former Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad & Director, Economic Management Institute, Delhi stressed that although the GDP of India has grown from 6.9% in 2013-14 to 7.4% in 2014-15 but the Export shave shrunk from 4.7% in 2013-14 to 4.0 % in 2014-15, posing a threat to the growth of Indian economy. He shared that foreign investors are skeptic of investing in India since the stock of stalled projects by the end of December 2014 stood at Rs. 8.8 lakh crore or7% of GDP. Sharing his views further, he remarked that the environment in the country is such that it does not incentivize employers to employ large number of people and adding to the situation is unskilled and untrained youth, not equipped with requisite knowledge, skills and attitude. He opined that India must aim at a GDP growth of 10% which is possible through stepping up the rate of investment by Public and Private players, encouraging massive FDI, Privatization of atleast 10 Central Enterprises including SAIL, Air India; Rationalization of subsidies and tax expenditures and substantial increase in expenditures on Education, Skill Development and Health.
The inauguration was followed by two technical sessions –“ India’s Economic Health –Strategies for Growth” and “India’s Economic Health – Regulatory Framework for Future” wherein notable speakers such as Prof. (Dr) Rajendra kumar Anayath, Director , The Technological Institute of Textile & Sciences, Bhiwani, Dr. R. K. Gaur, Vice President , Ginni Filamants Ltd, Kosi kalan, Prof. (Dr) V.K.Singh, Dean , Faculty of Management, G.K.University, Haridwar and Mr. G. K. Dixit, Head-H.R & Administration , Shriram Pistons and Rings Ltd, Bhiwadi shared their views.
Over 37 research papers and 12 presentations were given during the National Seminar.