Give Entrepreneurs and Households Back Their Time and Mental Bandwidth: CEA
He also advocated for significant roll back of regulations both by the Union and state governments
New Delhi: Exuding the confidence that the Indian economy is on a steady growth path and the macroeconomic health checklist looks good, chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Friday called for giving entrepreneurs and households back their time and mental bandwidth, while at the same time making a strong case for significant roll back of regulations both by the Union and state governments. “As the country aims to accelerate its economic growth rate in the coming years, it has the tailwind of strong balance sheets in the domestic corporate and financial sectors,” Nageswaran added.
In the Preface of the Survey, he said ‘Getting out of the way’ and allowing businesses to focus on their core mission is a significant contribution that governments around the country can make to foster innovation and enhance competitiveness. “The most effective policies governments - Union and States - in the country can embrace is to give entrepreneurs and households back their time and mental bandwidth. That means rolling back regulation significantly. That means vowing and acting to stop micromanaging economic activity and embracing risk-based regulations,” he said.
The CEA also said that an effective government policy also means changing the operating principle of regulations from ‘guilty until proven innocent’ to ‘innocent until proven guilty’. “Adding layers of operational conditions to policies to prevent abuse makes them incomprehensible and regulations needlessly complicated, taking them further from their original purposes and intentions,” said Nageswaran.
Observing that there is no choice but to trust the people, he also cautioned that business as usual carries a high risk of economic growth stagnation, if not economic stagnation. “Yes, trust is a two-way street and the non-government actors in the economy have to vindicate the trust reposed. In fact, quite a significant chunk of the complicated compliance requirements stem from the efforts of businesses wanting to keep out domestic and foreign competition to the detriment of other industries and the economy,” he added.
The chief economist also emphasised that wiping out the trust deficit in the country as it is imperative and government agencies have to set the agenda in this regard. “Then, it is a good bet that the Indian public will overcome the challenges and turn them into opportunities on the way to Viksit Bharat by 2047,” he said.
