“To reflect an improving investment outlook with private investment, particularly manufacturing, benefiting from the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme, and increases in infrastructure investment”, it has upgraded India’s growth numbers to 8.7% in FY 2022-23 and 6.8% in FY 2023-24- says the World Bank.
Back in November 2021 itself, a Finance Ministry report had said that, “India is on its way to becoming the fastest-growing major economy in the world … Armed with the necessary macro and micro growth drivers, the stage is set to kickstart India’s investment cycle and catalyze its recovery towards becoming the fastest growing economy in the world”. The survey had said that growth will be supported by a supply-side push from reforms and easing of regulations, emphasis on infrastructural investment, boost to manufacturing sector through production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes, recovery in demand, rise in discretionary consumption after the rollout of vaccines and pick-up in the credit given adequate liquidity and low-interest rates. All these are resulting in less demand-supply mismatch and more job opportunities.
PLI schemes are proving to be a very strong pillar of Aatmanirbhar Bharat, clearly breaking the deadlock of jobless growth as was forecasted by experts. Now, not only India is expected to grow faster, it is more inclusive as job creation is at core of these positive developments. According to BNP Paribas Asset Management “the success of PLI is expected to add 1.7 percent to the country’s GDP by 2027”. The direct impact of these schemes is likely to be larger on labour (an estimated 2.8 million new jobs) than on capital spending (estimated at $28 billion). There is likely to be significant upstream activity as a result, driving further gains in jobs and spending.
Inclusive nature of Aatmanirbhar Bharat is evident across traditional to cutting edge tech sectors. For example, in spite of COVID-hit situation, the Tourism sector is becoming an important contributor to the country’s economy and is expected to grow at 7.1 per annum to reach Rs 12.67 lakh crore by 2028. Further, the employment in tourism industry is expected to grow at 2.1 per annum and account for 33,195,000 jobs by 2028.
Government initiatives like ‘Indigenous 5G Test Bed Project’ at a cost of Rs 224 crore and allocation of spectrum for 5G testing to Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and MTNL to meet future technology needs in the telecom sector with ethos of Atmanirbhar Bharat, have shown positive results even for a utility sector like telecom, which is predicted to contribute 8% of India’s GDP in 2022, up from current 6.5%. Of all cutting edge technologies that drive socio-economic impact, artificial intelligence is well on its way to becoming the strongest contender to drive future growth. While still in its nascent stage, AI is projected to add $ 500 billion to India’s GDP by 2025.
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