Green shoots visible in the economy, India will bounce back with vengeance – Amitabh Kant
NEW DELHI, 7 July 2020: Mr Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog today emphasized that India will
soon bounce back from COVID-19.
Addressing a session on ‘Role of
the Creative Economy in Nation Building’ in conversation with Mr Ajit
Mohan, VP and MD, Facebook India and Chair of the FICCI Digital Forum,
organised during ‘FICCI FRAMES 2020’, Mr Kant said, “We are
already witnessing emergence of green shoots in the economy. We are seeing that
key sectors like FMCG, etc. have already come back. I am optimistic that we
will bounce back with vengeance.”
He further said that India must identify 12-13 sectors in which it can
be a global champion. “All of us need to be very clear that the pandemic is a
massive challenge not just for India but for the world. Every crisis is also an
opportunity. We must pick-up areas of growth, which will help us emerge as
winners for tomorrow,” said Mr Kant.
Elaborating on the potential areas, Mr Kant said that
the key areas will include data, AI, genomics, mobility, drones, creative
industry along with media and entertainment, will be key drivers of growth.
“These sectors will take India to a sustained level of growth in the next 10-12
years and create a vast number of jobs,” he added.
Mr Kant further stated that while COVID-19
has brought in the ‘New Normal’, it will be innovation, which will be the key
in the new normal. The people who will survive will be those who will work with
technology, capturing the sunrise sectors of growth while data and the use of
AI will drive the growth, he said.
“India, often gets into the areas of sunset industries and then it
becomes difficult to penetrate the global market’s size and scale. India will
get into the new areas of growth and these areas will have huge
disruptions,” Mr Kant said.
Enumerating the importance of Atmanirbhar Bharat program launched by the
government, Mr Kant said that through this, the government has
brought radical reforms in various sectors like MSME, agriculture, etc.
“Atmanirbhar Bharat is not about isolation. It is about becoming a global
champion,” he said.
On the role of public and private sector partnerships, he said that the
role of technology and the use of digital platforms is increasing. “We are in
touch with the private sector to build super apps in areas like education,
health, agriculture. Our objective will be that the business model will be of
the private sector and the government backing will give them the size and scale
to reach domestic as well as global markets,” added Mr Kant.
Highlighting the importance of data, Mr Kant said that
in India, we are seeing data at very low-price points. India’s usage of data
will be enormous. “We need to move from the scale of data to becoming data
intelligent in the years to come. This would require us to leapfrog in the
world of Artificial Intelligence,” he asserted.
Mr Kant said that use of blockchain can act as a game-changer in solving
many critical problems related to the huge pendency in civil courts or land
related matters. “We need to use blockchain and get into real time monitoring
of these issues. These are some of the areas where India must technologically
leapfrog, and it is critical for India’s long-term ability to grow at high
rates consistently,” he added.
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