PM Modi's principal secretary speaks on the pathways for sustainable growth in uncertain world

BHUBANESWAR: Pramod Kumar Mishra, principal secretary to prime minister Narendra Modi, while attending a conference at Sambalpur University on Saturday said export-led growth will not be very easy now as the situation has changed world over due to Covid and geopolitical tension.

While addressing the 56th annual conference of the Odisha Economic Association (OEA), Mishra said govts are now world over pursuing onshoring and friend-shoring of production with consequent impact on transportation, logistics and cost increasing affecting final price of products.

He said recent events in the Red Sea have also caused concern for reliance on global supply chains, thereby aggravating the slower growth in global trade. Consequently, export-led growth will not be very easy. “There is a need to lower logistics cost and invest and improve the quality of product in order to hold on and expand the market. This is one source of uncertainty of the global supply chain disruption and geopolitical tension,” he added.

He spoke on the pathways for sustainable growth in an uncertain world. He said that the global uncertainties have arisen from three sources: firstly, geopolitical uncertainty, secondly, technology and innovation such as AI, driven uncertainty and finally environmental concerns or energy transition related uncertainties.

Amid the global uncertainties, he said, the Indian economy remains a major performer. In order to achieve sustainable development, one should focus on economic growth that ensures an equal society and makes the world a safer place, he added.

“India is focussing on Atma Nirbhar which goes beyond self-sufficiency and focuses on the production for the world. For addressing the environmental concerns India has taken initiatives like Lifestyle for the Environment (LiFE), Solar Alliance and coalition for disaster resilient infrastructure (CDRI). Other countries should join their hands in these initiatives,” he added.

In the last two budgets of the Union govt, Centre has taken a number of initiatives to address the environmental concerns. To boost economic growth, it is investing a higher percentage of the budget on infrastructure through PM GATI SHAKTI. India has adopted logistic policy, production linked incentives, signed more free trade agreements, said Mishra.

He said the world is more uncertain now than the past. Events like Covid-19 have been called as Black swan events. Economic models use past data to forecast the future. However, in events like Covid, past data are not helpful. “How do we use the new technologies such as quantum computing in redesigning economic modelling?” he added.