The youth in India will have more attractive opportunities to live and work in India, but they will have to work hard to make the best of the opportunities, said Y.V. Reddy, former RBI Governor, who has been recently appointed chairman of the Finance Commission.
Speaking on the topic “Global Financial Crises and Indian Economy”, after receiving the Dr. Pinnamaneni and Smt.Seethadevi Foundation Award here on Friday, Mr. Reddy said that India would be the land of opportunities, with seven to eight per cent growth in GDP per annum and two per cent growth in population.
It would be the second or could even be the first, fastest growing economy competing with China. India would become more ‘globalised’ and young people would have global opportunities.
Financial crisis
Explaining the reasons for the global financial crisis and the impact it had on the Indian economy, Mr. Reddy said that there were lessons to learn from it.
The younger generation were better off with better living standards, education and health facilities. The next generation (grand children) would be even better. But, the future generations should not aspire for high living standards at the cost of environment. The high living standards “will draw more from mother earth and nature.”
Social compulsion
Earth cannot sustain such exploitation, he said and added that austerity was not a personal virtue anymore, it was a social compulsion. Asked if import of gold which was not productive was against the economic interest of the country, Mr. Reddy said it was the people who were opposed to the import of gold. Investment in gold was an insurance, saving and security. But it was wrong to say that gold was without utility because people wear it as jewellery. He said that when the import of expensive cars was allowed, there should be no objection to the import of gold.
The foundation managing trustee C.Nageswara Rao, president P.L.N.Prasad, members C Sudha Nageswara Rao, Ch.Subramanyam, Ch.Murali Krishna, Andavalli Satyanarayana, K Pattabhiramaiah, were present.
