Staff Reporter
VISAKHAPATNAM: Calling for focus on rural economy, Prof. K.C. Reddy, Chairman, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE), said on Saturday that agriculture growth rate should be accelerated to stop widening of inequalities.Giving a lecture on Indian economy at a meeting conducted by the Centre for Policy Studies, he said while the retail profit of capitalists had grown up during past four to five years, share of wages had come down.
The small and medium enterprises were not able to compete in the global market, he said and advocated policy packages to support them.
Stating that 25 per cent people had access to public distribution system, he said the actual benefit was availed by only 10 per cent. Prof. Reddy said steps should be taken to improve the delivery mechanism.
Consensus
He said there should be political consensus on economic policies and a long-term perspective plan.
“Continuity could be ensured if there is a consensus on matters pertaining to economic issues,” he said.
Prof. Reddy expressed satisfaction over the growth of economy and said the growth would be sustainable if it was investment-centric.
Oozing out confidence that the nation would have double-digit growth rate, he said the positive factors were more saving and investment rate and incremental capital output ratio.
Disturbing trend
However, he regretted that the benefit of growth was being concentrated in few people.
Quoting a SEBI study, he said most money was being invested in equity and property and it was being held by four to five per cent of people. The disturbing trend was that a large proportion of it was held by one per cent.
The share of agriculture in the GDP had come down to 16 per cent, he pointed out. Prof. Bhanoji Rao of Gitam Institute of Foreign Trade presided and Centre for Policy Studies director A. Prasanna Kumar gave the welcome address.
