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Prathima Nandakumar
Prathima Nandakumar

MAKE IN KARNATAKA

India has become an aspirational society: Jaitley

PTI2_13_2017_000090B Finance Minister Arun Jaitley along with Union ministers Venkaiah Naidu and Ananth Kumar and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah lighting lamps during the inaugural session of 'Make In India' conference in Bengaluru | PTI

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday that even at 7-7.5 growth rate, India was not a satisfied nation due to its hunger to grow even faster.

“India has become a very increasingly aspirational society and this aspiration has put a lot of pressure on policymakers to put growth on fastrack. For the last two years, India has been the fastest growing economy and we hope to remain so in future. India is a bright spot amid the global slowdown and protectionism of the developed countries,” said Jaitley while addressing the the two-day “Make In India-Karnataka” conference in Bengaluru. 

The minister hailed Karnataka as one of the most innovative states with a very progressive population and a progressive set of policies. “Karnataka must achieve 2-3 per cent higher growth rate than the national average to lead India economically,” he said.

The event was organised by the Centre to showcase and attract investments for manufacturing in sectors like electronics, aerospace, defence among others.

Investment in infrastructure to develop rural economy was the way forward, asserted the finance minister justifying the allocation of Rs 3.96 lakh crore for the infrastructure sector in the recently presented union budget. 

“I provided Rs 55,000 crore for Railways, created a fund of Rs 1 lakh crore for railway safety (track and institutional strengthening) and allocated Rs 27,000 crore for rural roads. 

Our emphasis areas are absolutely clear. The first right over government resources must go to the weakest section, and as far as India is concerned, the weakest section is rural India and agriculture. And therefore, we are spending Rs 1,86,000 crore to rural India for infrastructure projects,” said Jaitley adding that government had taken steps to integrate the informal economy with the formal one, which could increase revenue for states as well as the Centre.

He also said once the GST regime was implemented, the whole country would become one big market with easy flow of goods and services, with the help of good taxation system and one assessment system, instead of multiple ones.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah urged the Centre to extend the existing incentives and concessions to manufacturing sector up to 2025 as the country intends to increase its share of manufacturing in Gross Domestic Product to 25 per cent by 2025. 

Karnataka has been the hub for information technology services, which accounts for 25 per cent share of the state GDP. Over 3,500 IT companies in the state contribute to nearly Rs 2.20 lakh crore of exports. 

“We hope to create opportunities and help India achieve its target of creating 100 million jobs and account for 25 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product share by 2022,” said Siddaramaiah. 

“Besides having an annual hackathon event to promote innovative ideas in manufacturing, a seed fund of Rs five crore and one acre of land in select industrial areas at a subsidized cost have been set aside to fund these start-ups. Our focus which has so far been on design and prototyping should shift to commercially driven research and innovation,” the chief minister said, proposing to institute an award for the best performing manufacturing company to be announced on Rajyotsava Day every year. 

Siddaramaiah also urged the Centre to align all regulations and actions to promote home-grown products and services and throw open public sector labs for joint partnerships with private sector in a way where risks and rewards are equally shared.

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Topics : #Arun Jaitley | #GDP

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