Digital transformation, access to finance will act as catalyst for India’s development story: NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant
Author: BI
New Delhi: The Covid-19 has been extensively disruptive in terms of economic activity and loss of human lives across the globe. At the same time, this crisis has given us unique opportunities that can be used effectively and innovatively. “India used this opportunity to undertake bold and ambitious structural reforms and leveraged them to put the country on a high growth trajectory, a trajectory of inclusive growth which not only accounts for manufacturing and infrastructure development but also the improvement of the social sectors,” said NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
Kant, who was recently addressing a webinar on ‘Enabling MSME Growth through Financial Inclusion’ FICCI-CMSME and Facebook, said that digital transformation will drive India’s manufacturing sector forward. “To remain competitive, investing in digital technologies is must now. For digital transformation, a robust digital infrastructure, and a robust IT mechanism to prevent frauds and cyber-attacks are key enablers. Digital transformation will act as a catalyst for India’s development story going forward. Access to finance will be crucial to realize this transformation. In this context, the Small Business Loans Initiative launched by Facebook is a big step in this direction. E-commerce will be a major driving force for the country's growth in the coming years.”
Kant further stated that in shaping the post-Covid-19 reality, there is no way out for India but growth. “We have an opportunity to usher in change that will see our society transform within a generation. Despite the impact of the pandemic, India’s macroeconomic fundamentals remain strong. Most of the agencies are predicting growth for the current fiscal to be between 9.5 per cent and 11 per cent depending on the strength of the recovery. Early signs signal towards a strong recovery,” he added.
MSMEs, Kant noted, will play a significant role in reviving India’s economic growth and in achieving the vision of a self-reliant India. “There is a need for the Indian MSMEs to enhance their capabilities to supply quality products at competitive price, embracing technological solutions across the supply chain is an imperative in addressing quality concerns and improving cost competitiveness. This will be possible by a strong focus on innovation and entrepreneurship. By serving global markets through quality and cost competitive products, MSMEs have the potential to drive the export-led growth in India. Competitive MSMEs will have a spillover effect of reducing our import dependency especially in labour intensive manufactured goods like the garments and electronics amongst others,” he added.
Kant emphasized that one of the most critical aspects for India’s integration into the global value chain is for our industries to become globally competitive. This can be achieved through the adoption of disruptive and transformational technological processes in industries. “The government is committed to create an enabling environment for the MSMEs and private sector to thrive. The private sector will also need to help the MSMEs by adopting latest technologies and new business processes. With the world rapidly changing, the emergence of new technologies and changes in consumer preferences, we should guide and up-skill our MSME sector to take advantage of the new global environment,” he added.
Uday Shankar, President, FICCI, said that the resetting of the global supply chain is a massive possibility but at the same time the entire pivot and the focus on new technologies or sustainability and green technologies are something that the MSME sector needs to look at. “At FICCI, we consider MSMEs to be at the nucleus of India and the growth engine of the economy in future,” he added.
R Narayan, President, FICCI-CMSME, stated that Indian MSMEs are ready to adopt new technologies and digitization to keep up with changing business dynamics. “Digitization has played a significant role in enabling MSMEs to survive in such tough conditions. However, the bigger question is how digitization will enable MSMEs to become resourceful, sustainable and what else could be expected from digitization. We all know that the possibilities are immense,” he added.
Ajit Mohan, Managing Director and Vice President, Facebook India, while launching the ‘Facebook’s Small Business Loans’ initiative, said, “Facebook is committed to creating economic opportunities for the growth of India’s small businesses. Access to timely capital is more important than ever as it can help small businesses jump-start their economic activity and recovery. The Small Business Loans Initiative will help our small business advertisers to build for their growth journeys by securing timely business loans at very competitive rates and conditions. We’re also thrilled to be partnering with FICCI-CMSME to build new initiatives that can unleash further growth for MSMEs in India.” Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI, said that MSMEs are looking at access and the ease of getting access to finance. Interest rates are secondary. /BI/
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The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores.
As the economy comes to a standstill amid the coronavirus-led lockdown, India’s agriculture sector has taken the baton of economic growth in its hands. The exports of agricultural commodities from March to June 2020 shot up by 23.24 percent on-year to Rs 25,552.7 crores, according to the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare. The government said that self-reliant agriculture is critical for the goal of an Atmanirbhar Bharat and for this, agricultural export is extremely important as besides earning foreign exchange for the country, the exports help farmers, producers, and exporters to take advantage of the wider international market and increase their income.
The surge in exports has also resulted in increased production in the farm sector by increasing coverage area and productivity. The share of India’s agricultural exports and imports in the world agriculture trade in 2017 was 2.27 percent and 1.90 percent, respectively. Even during the difficult time of pandemic lockdown, India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export, the government said.
Ministry of Agriculture has prepared a comprehensive action plan for the promotion of Agri trade; the twofold approach focuses on boosting Agri Export with emphasis on value addition and action plan for Import Substitution. Recently, the Agriculture sector has witnessed a series of reforms, giving more choices to the farmers to sell their produce at competitive rates.
To mention a few, the Export strategy focuses on the export promotion of fast-evolving niche markets of Wellness food/ Health-conscious food/nutraceuticals, Development of “Brand India” in campaign mode to help penetration into new foreign markets and of new products which automatically translates into higher value realization, Gulf countries have been identified as focus destination to increase the market share which is a strong market for India though presently India caters to only 10-12% share of their total imports. A product-market matrix has been made containing a list of products of strength that could be expanded in new geographies and a list of known markets which can be introduced with newer products.
At the behest of the Department of Agricultural Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, product-specific Export Promotion Forums have been created to lead Agri exports to new heights. Each Export Promotion Forum shall be having exporters of the related commodity as its members along with official members representing concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central and State Governments. Chairman APEDA shall be the chairman of each of these forums. The forums will meet at least once every two months, to discuss recommendations on issues pertaining to the export.
The recommendations of the forum will be placed in the product committee / Authority of APEDA. The Forum will keep in close contact with the concerned organization of the Ministry of Agriculture such as MIDH, Extension, NPPO, etc., DGFT, Ministry of Civil Aviation, MoFPI, etc. to further the interest of agricultural export.
