SHILLONG, April 17: Renowned Indian economist Sanjeev Sanyal on Monday visited the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong, and shed light on the course of reform that India is going to undertake in the next 25 years.
According to a statement here, a Youth 20 (Y20) lecture, under the NEHU’s initiatives for G20, was organised on Monday and was attended by renowned technocrat, author and policy advisor Sanjeev Sanyal, who delivered a lecture on ‘Next 25 years of reform’ in the presence of the university’s faculty, students, staff, researchers, among others.
Sanyal, in his address, delineated the need for transparency, innovation, efficiency and quick solutions to pending problems of delivery from the system, and advocated a faster path of reform with due interventions from the government.
Sanyal, who is a member of the Economic Advisory Council of the Prime Minister of India, also emphasised the need for finding avenues of opportunities for the youths.
He argued that uncertainties and instabilities of a present-day economy necessitate a kind of solution that is arrived at by the market, albeit with some directions and interventions from the government.
Citing the work of Centre during COVID-19 times, Sanyal pointed out how a presumed equilibrium does not come into existence and how one needs to bring about certain changes to address the uncertainties, in spite of going out of copybook style of running the economy.
The present growth figure of 5.7 per cent of the Indian economy, according to the expert, is a safety valve, which would stave off inflationary pressures and balance of payment crises etc.
On the front of human development, India’s improved picture of life sustenance and night luminosity are examples of India’s slow but steady progress, Sanyal said.
On a question about creation of jobs for the youths, Sanyal pointed out that job creation is no longer in the hands of the government, but depends on finding ways and means of setting up business in every sector of social life, to which youths are able to cope by adapting appropriate strategies of career and entrepreneurship.
He also admitted that teaching has to go global because of digitalisation, but research potential has to be built up between institutions by fair redistribution of scarce resources so that in research, a university like NEHU can maintain a steady role in contributing to the economy.
NEHU Vice-Chancellor Prof. PS Shukla, who presided over the lecture, pointed out the strength of India’s present leadership and argued that India will be able to go through all difficulties and can evolve a path of self-reliance and self-development.
It may be mentioned that the lecture was organised by the Office of International Affairs of NEHU with an aim to re-understand India’s attempts to emerge into a global economic power by pursuing practical solutions to serious problems of running the system.
