Private sector financing will have to play a critical role in funding India’s transformation towards becoming a developed nation by 2047, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Secretary Anuradha Thakur said on Friday.
Speaking at the first conference of State Finance Ministers organised by the Union Finance Ministry to discuss the financing requirements for achieving Viksit Bharat, Thakur said the scale of transformation envisaged cannot be met solely through government budgets.
“Given the scale of transformation we envisage towards our shared goal, it needs to be borne in mind that this scale cannot be met solely by government budgets, and that private sector financing will need to play a critical role,” she said.
The two-day conference will discuss financing requirements for agricultural transformation and the energy transition, besides examining the role of new-age technology and growth rates from a Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) perspective.
Working groups, including representatives from the States, have also been constituted to take forward the discussions on different thematic areas and identify sectoral financing requirements for India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat.
Thakur said the conference has a broader focus than the ministry’s regular meeting of State Finance Ministers, which primarily seeks suggestions for the Union Budget and focuses on public finance. The latest conference seeks to examine both public and private sources of finance over a longer time horizon.
She said innovative means of financing would be a central theme of the conference, which brings together policymakers, State governments, industry, banking and academia.
The DEA Secretary also highlighted India’s recent sovereign rating upgrades as evidence of the country’s improving macroeconomic position. She said India has received four sovereign rating upgrades from major international rating agencies over the past 16-17 months, including a one-notch upgrade by Japan Credit Rating Agency (JCR) from BBB+ to A-.
She said the Centre-State partnership on policy, financing and implementation would be crucial to achieving the country’s development goals.