GREEN SHOOTS VISIBLE IN THE ECONOMY, INDIA WILL BOUNCE BACK WITH VENGEANCE – AMITABH KANT

Jyothi Venkatesh

Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog today emphasized that India will soon bounce back from COVID-19. Addressing a session on ‘Role of the Creative Economy in Nation Building’ in conversation with Mr Ajit Mohan, VP and MD, Facebook India and Chair of the FICCI Digital Forum, organised during ‘FICCI FRAMES 2020’, Mr Kant said, “We are already witnessing emergence of green shoots in the economy. We are seeing that key sectors like FMCG, etc. have already come back.

I am optimistic that we will bounce back with vengeance.”He further said that India must identify 12-13 sectors in which it can be a global champion. “All of us need to be very clear that the pandemic is a massive challenge not just for India but for the world. Every crisis is also an opportunity. We must pick-up areas of growth, which will help us emerge as winners for tomorrow,” said Mr Kant.Elaborating on the potential areas, Mr Kant said that the key areas will include data, AI, genomics, mobility, drones, creative industry along with media and entertainment, will be key drivers of growth. “These sectors will take India to a sustained level of growth in the next 10-12 years and create a vast number of jobs,” he added.

Mr Kant further stated that while COVID-19 has brought in the ‘New Normal’, it will be innovation, which will be the key in the new normal. The people who will survive will be those who will work with technology, capturing the sunrise sectors of growth while data and the use of AI will drive the growth, he said.“India, often gets into the areas of sunset industries and then it becomes difficult to penetrate the global market’s size and scale. India will get into the new areas of growth and these areas will have huge disruptions,” Mr Kant said.

Enumerating the importance of Atmanirbhar Bharat program launched by the government, Mr Kant said that through this, the government has brought radical reforms in various sectors like MSME, agriculture, etc. “Atmanirbhar Bharat is not about isolation. It is about becoming a global champion,” he said.On the role of public and private sector partnerships, he said that the role of technology and the use of digital platforms is increasing. “We are in touch with the private sector to build super apps in areas like education, health, agriculture. Our objective will be that the business model will be of the private sector and the government backing will give them the size and scale to reach domestic as well as global markets,” added Mr Kant.

Highlighting the importance of data, Mr Kant said that in India, we are seeing data at very low-price points. India’s usage of data will be enormous. “We need to move from the scale of data to becoming data intelligent in the years to come. This would require us to leapfrog in the world of Artificial Intelligence,” he asserted.Mr Kant said that use of blockchain can act as a game-changer in solving many critical problems related to the huge pendency in civil courts or land related matters. “We need to use blockchain and get into real time monitoring of these issues. These are some of the areas where India must technologically leapfrog, and it is critical for India’s long-term ability to grow at high rates consistently,” he added.