Gita Gopinath of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has called for more investments in health and public infrastructure in India and a workforce that’s way more skilled.
Ms Gopinath, First Deputy Managing Director at IMF and professor at Harvard University, pointed out what India needs to do to become a developed nation while speaking at Delhi School of Economics.
“India is the fastest growing economy among the major economies. The question is how to keep up the momentum in the long run,” she said at DSE’s Diamond Jubilee Conference.
The top IMF economist said that India needs a workforce that’s “much more skilled and much more educated”. This is absolutely critical to take India towards a high-income economy, she added.
She also called for more investments in public infrastructure – in which she said there’s a gap – and institutional measures to support high growth in the long run. Ease of Doing Business, efficiency of the judicial system and land Reforms are absolutely critical.
Flexibility in labour markets, which includes the implementation of labour codes, keeping trade open, and more investments in health are also
She also called for an increase in women’s labour force participation.
Earlier in the day, she told NDTV that climate change posed a downward risk to the Indian economic outlook and called for “a lot of action” by the country.
She said while India has done “extremely well” in terms of headline growth, the employment growth here has been lower than 2%.
“India’s growth has been capital intensive, but hiring workers has been much less. India needs more investment in human capital and skilling workers. Jobs between 60-148 million need to be created between now and 2030,” she told NDTV.
