'Too much of democracy in India' makes reforms harder: Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant
Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant believes that India has 'too much of democracy' that makes it difficult to carry out tough reforms needed to make the country more competitive.
FollowNiti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant believes that India has 'too much of democracy' that makes it difficult to carry out tough reforms needed to make the country more competitive.
Taking part in a virtual event organised by Swarajya magazine on 'Strategic Enablers and Policy Ecosystem for Atmanirbhar Bharat', the Niti Aayog chief stated that India is for the first time undertaking "hard-headed reforms" to counter China.
"Tough reforms are very difficult in the Indian context, we have too much of democracy...You needed political will to carry out these reforms (mining, coal, labour, agriculture) and many more reforms still need to be done," he said.
"It (Modi government) has shown the political will for hard-headed reforms. It is not easy to compete against China. India is attempting it for the first time," he added.
"We have been unable to take on global competition since our manufacturing does not match global standards in size and sale. We cannot do reforms with this. China has been able to penetrate the export market due to its production on global scale. We need reforms in labour, agriculture, mining, and coal," Kant said.
The Niti Aayog chief, however, said that the Union government had used the opportunity presented by the coronavirus crisis to unleash reforms in key sectors such as agriculture, coal, mining, defence MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) and space sectors.
