The International Monetary Fund on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’ call for a self-reliant India, i.e. ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ is an important initiative.
As per news agency PTI, Gerry Rice, director-communications department at IMF told reporters that the economic package announced under this self-reliant initiative announced in the aftermath of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic has supported Indian economy and mitigated significant downside risks.
“To achieve the stated ‘Make For The World’ goal in India, the priority is to remain focussed on policies that can help further integrate India in the global value chain, including through trade, investment and technology,” Rice added.
Responding to a question on PM Modi’s call for an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, Rice said, “Looking ahead, as the prime minister has said, for India to play a more important part in the global economy, pursuing policies that stimulate by improving the efficiency and competitiveness of the economy is critical.’’
He also pointed out that in order to achieve ‘Make For The World’ goal in India, the priority is to be focused on policies that can help India to integrate further in the global value chain including channels such as trade, investment and technology.
The IMF’s joint study with the NITI Aayog and ministry of finance indicates that to achieve a high performance in health-related sustainable development goals, India would need to gradually increase total spending in the healthcare sector from the current 3.7 per cent of the GDP, Rice added while responding to another question.
He mentioned that beyond the health sector, comprehensive structural reforms are also needed to achieve more inclusive and sustainable medium-term growth.
“We have talked about those reforms before — infrastructure, land reforms, product market and labour market reforms, increasing female labour force participation, access to finance and better jobs,” Rice said.
