India needs to grow at 10 pc for 30 yrs to meet population's demands

New Delhi: India needs to grow at about 10 per cent annually for the next three decades to be able to meet the ever-rising demands of its growing population, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Monday.

This order of growth however will not be achieved if the 'business-as-usual' approach to the use of scarce resources continues, he cautioned. He said that for reducing dependence on fossil fuels in transportation, a NITI Aayog analysis suggests that the way forward is the use of bio-fuels.

"We are giving a big push to electric vehicles in a bid to conserve exhaustible natural resources and bring about resource efficiency,” Kant said at FICCI's Circular Economy Symposium-2018 here.

He also underlined the need to embed the principles of circular economy in India's school education system. A circular economy, in contrast to the 'make-use-dispose' model of the linear economy, focuses on use of resources for longest possible time as also recovering and regenerating products and materials at the end of their life cycle.

Noting that the government needs to enable regulatory framework for circular economy, he said: "We should incentivise use of renewable material for construction sector."

Kant also stressed that the government needs to push the limits of the circular economy and make it a mass movement. According to FICCI-Accenture study, which was released today by Kant, by adopting circular business model, India could reap a reward of between USD 382 to USD 697 billion by 2030.

The report pointed out that the circular economy through its innovative business model, offers a unique opportunity to decouple growth from resource requirements.

According to the report, five factors will be critical to accelerate circular models in India -- greater awareness, disruptive technologies, enabling policy landscape, innovative funding models and collaborations and partnerships.