PM Modi’s Call for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat helped India to tackle the Covid-19 economic shock: IMF
New Delhi: The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Communications Department Director Gerry Rice has praised the ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ campaign launched by the government in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic. Gerry Rice said that “Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for an Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) helped the country to tackle the Covid-19 economic shock,”
Gerry Rice stated that “The economic package under this self-reliant India initiative, which was announced in the aftermath of the coronavirus shock, has supported the Indian economy and mitigated significant downside risks, so we do see that initiative as having been important,”
Further Gerry Rice said “India needs to play a more important part in the global economy by pursuing policies that stimulate by improving the efficiency and competitiveness of the economy. He said it these measures are also critical for India’s economic recovery,”
“To achieve the stated ‘Make For The World’ goal in India, the priority is to remain focussed on policies that can help further integrate India in the global value chain, including through trade, investment and technology,” Rice told media.
On the development, Rice said that India needs comprehensive structural reforms to achieve inclusive and sustainable medium term growth.
“We have talked about those reforms before — infrastructure, land reforms, product market and labour market reforms, increasing female labour force participation, access to finance and better jobs,” Rice said.
In Response of question on PM Modi’s call for an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, Rice said that “Looking ahead, as the prime minister has said, for India to play a more important part in the global economy, pursuing policies that stimulate by improving the efficiency and competitiveness of the economy is critical.’’
Furthermore Gerry Rice asserted that The IMF’s joint study with the NITI Aayog and Union Ministry of Finance indicates that to achieve a high performance in health related sustainable development goals, India would need to gradually increase total spending in the healthcare sector from the current 3.7 percent of the GDP.
_Vinayak.Barot
