Budget 2024: Reforms For Labour Intensive Sectors | NDTV Profit
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00:00The CII has obviously put out its list of expectations from the budget, representations
00:06have been made to the government as well, and those conversations are ongoing consistently
00:11through the year.
00:12But at this point, and let me begin the conversation with Mr. Sanjeev Puri, Mr. Puri, at this point,
00:18I suppose the biggest question on everyone's mind is, are we going to see the political
00:25realities and the election result in some way reflect into the budget?
00:32Simply put, are we going to see a greater push for consumption, towards employment,
00:37towards the rural sector, and would that be something which is in the best interest of
00:42the economy and industry as well?
00:44Well, you know that right now the economy is in a very strong foundation, there are
00:51a lot of positives, and those positives are a result of a number of policy instruments
00:57that were brought about in the past.
00:59So really what I'm saying is the strategy adopted in the past has worked, it is strengthening
01:06the competitiveness of the economy, it's creating jobs, private sector investment is significant
01:14now, it is at 23.8% of GDP.
01:17I think the mood in India is quite positive, that is shown up also by the internal surveys
01:24of CII.
01:25So if you look at what is important from all stakeholders' perspective is creating quality
01:31jobs at scale.
01:33And the current process is already creating jobs, I think the impact of some of the instruments
01:39that have been put in place, we should see that get better over time.
01:44And the question is really on what more can be done to create good quality jobs, that
01:49will be the very, very question to answer.
01:51So besides continuing the theme that's been on and on, I think there is an opportunity
01:56to provide impetus to certain labour-intensive sectors.
02:02And these include things like toys, apparel, footwear, you know, wood-based industry, tourism,
02:08just to give a few examples.
02:11How can we just realize and work for certain sectors, so there is scope to provide similar
02:17impetus to an employment scheme in the employment-intensive sector.
02:21I think that would be an important one to take care of.
02:25The second is that today, nearly half of India's workforce is in agriculture.
02:32Now, there we are dealing with two issues, we're dealing with the issue of lower incomes,
02:37which is also a part of the economy, ultimately, a better quality of incomes.
02:42And the second is the extreme risks on account of weather events.
02:46And that's what's been hampering the rural economy in the last, you know, years.
02:51And that's why the stress is felt in the rural economy.
02:55So how do we build resilience in agriculture?
02:58How do we kind of improve productivity in the agriculture that gets back to the whole
03:04set of reforms that need to happen?
03:06And how do we bring technology into agriculture?
03:09There are some instruments already at play, but they need to be scaled up and some more
03:13reform needs to happen.
03:15And a very important area that needs to be addressed from rural is this whole area of
03:20resilience in agriculture.
03:22And I think resilience issue is beyond agriculture, it is for other infrastructure, it is for
03:28many more things.
03:29It's for water security, because today water itself is becoming an important area.
03:33So we need to address this issue of adaptation.
03:36So what we are recommending is setting up a national commission on adaptation.
03:40In fact, also a national mission on water.
03:43So we create water security for the society, for industrial establishments.
03:48So these are, you know, all these areas actually go back into the area of economic
03:54growth, of creating good quality jobs.
03:56And therefore, this is what should be in the interest of all stakeholders.
04:01And we have seen in the past that this group is what has given the, you know, good results
04:06so far.
04:07And I think the outcome of the past clearly energised everybody to strengthen the path
04:14rather than deviate from it.
04:16Of course, I do agree that there may be some aspects of economic space in certain areas
04:24to be created, whether it's through some release in income tax or whether it is higher
04:30MNREGA wages, or it is increased in the PM design.
04:34So given that cost of everything has gone up, not only in India, but globally, I think
04:40it's important that some kind of relief is given to people at the lower end.
04:46That, of course, also needs to be dealt with.