With plan panel gone, nation needs fresh thinking to design policies: Manmohan Singh

This is necessary to spur growth and reduce economic inequalities: Manmohan Singh

October 05, 2017 12:01 am | Updated 09:30 am IST - BENGALURU

 Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and former RBI Governor C. Rangarajan  in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and former RBI Governor C. Rangarajan in Bengaluru on Wednesday.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said that in the absence of Planning Commission, the country needed a fresh thinking for designing new social and economic polices for spurring growth and reducing economic inequalities.

“Development planning and the Planning Commission were designed to reduce economic inequality in the country,” Dr. Singh said in his address at the inauguration of the Academic Session of Bengaluru Dr. B.R. Ambedkar School of Economics (BASE) here. Dr. Singh, who initiated liberal economic policies in the early 1990s under the Narasimha Rao government and continued during his tenure as the Prime Minister during 2004-2014, said: “Liberalisation process opened up new opportunities for the people and contributed robust economic growth and employment.”

The former Prime Minister, who is an economist, recalled Dr. Ambedkar’s speech to the Constituent Assembly in 1949 and said he had made efforts to keep social and economic inequality under control by incorporating various provisions in the Constitution. Dr. Ambedkar firmly believed that political democracy cannot succeed without social and economic democracy, Dr. Singh said.

Noting Bengaluru’s contribution to education and development, Dr. Singh said the city had several prestigious institutions and was the hub of information technology. It was one of the fastest growing cites in the world, and out of 45,000 foreign students in the country, 13,600 were studyin in Karnataka.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said ₹200 crore had been allotted for construction of building and other infrastructure of BASE.

Pranab Mukherjee laid the foundation to BASE in April 14, 2017, when the was President.

Ex-PM lauds CM’s work

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appreciated the development model adopted by the State government under the stewardship of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and said Karnataka was the first State to implement the Food Security Act enacted by the UPA government.

He lauded the Anna Bhagya scheme introduced by the Congress government since it assumed power and said 1.06 crore families had been benefiting from the scheme.

Dr. Singh said Mr. Siddaramaiah maintained fiscal discipline in all 12 budgets he had presented and pointed out that all his budgets focused on social and economic justice. “Karnataka is financially the best managed State in the county,” he noted.

He had waived crop loans amounting ₹72,000 crore during the UPA regime. The Siddaramaiah government waived farm loans of ₹10,165 crore.

Speedy implementation of stalled projects key: C. Rajgarajan

C. Rangarajan, former RBI Governor and Chairman of Madras School of Economics, said speedy implementation of stalled projects was the need of the hour to accelerate the economic growth, which was 8% to 9% during 2007-09 of the UPA regime.

He said the level of investment rate had declined from 38% of the GDP in 2008 to 27.4% now. Close discussions with industrialists were needed for creating a conducive climate for attracting investment and speedy execution of projects.

The former RBI governor said: “Our examination system must change... our assessment system must change” to produce good research and economists.

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