- JGU hosted the 1st Global Finance Conclave on Building a $5 Trillion Indian Economy
Dr Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog highlighted the necessity of a healthy India especially at the grassroots for the country to become a $5 Trillion economy “Our children aged between 6-24 months do not get the proper nourishment that they deserve. 38% of our children are under nourished and 50 % of our women are anaemic in our county. So you have to look after your human resource which is the most prized resource in our country, from the grassroots level and that will be the beginning of our attempt to get to the target of being a $5 trillion economy.”
Dr Kumar was delivering the Valedictory Address at the Global Finance Conclave hosted by O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) on ‘Building a $5 Trillion Indian Economy: The Way Forward’.
Exhibiting a positive stance of the country’s economic growth, Dr Kumar asserted: “The fact is that India did achieve between 2003-2011, an 8.5% growth. We have done it, and within those 8 years, 2 years we achieved 9-9.5% rate of growth. So, the Indian economy can grow at that pace. So any argument, any perception that we are just not upto it, I think is misplaced.”
He also laid importance on “improving the export of goods and services.” He said “while India is at 2.2%, China’s export is at 10.8%. For example, in agriculture it is astonishing that 43%-44% labour produces 16% of the GDP, whereas the export is negligible. We have tremendous demand locally and globally that we need to unlock the growth potential”.
In his inaugural address, Mr N. Sivasailam, Special Secretary (Logistics), Ministry of Commerce stressed the need to create long term funding sources through institutional development, instead of depending on commercial banks for building the country’s infrastructure.
Speaking on the current economic slowdown and the road to building a 5 trillion-dollar economy, he described the economy as a “riding a tiger from which we can’t get off”.
The 2-day conclave assembled key national stakeholders including senior regulators and policy makers, economists, professional service providers, and leaders from banks and insurance companies, asset and wealth management, FinTech and more. They discussed topics of current interest to build new opportunities for organizations, consumers, and the economy. The conclave highlighted a range of timely global economic and financial issues, including prospects for growth, challenges in adopting digital transformation, cross border regulation and tax policy, and more.
Welcoming the distinguished guests and panelists on Day 1, Professor (Dr) C. Raj Kumar Founding Vice Chancellor, JGU said, “There is a need to radically re-imagine our knowledge system including our universities which I believe is the heartbeat of the future of building a 5 trillion-dollar economy” He emphasized the need for building “human capacity, research capacity, knowledge development capacity intellectual and innovation capacity”.
Explaining the relevance of the conclave Dr Ashish Bhardwaj, Dean, JSBF said “If our goal is to reach the 5 trillion-dollar economy mark, we need to know what it means. We don’t have to go to London, Paris or Tokyo to realise how much ground there is to cover. The challenges we face include taking the underprivileged with us in this journey, making sense of the new disruptive technology, fixing our financial system and taking care of non-performing assets”.
The conclave witnessed a number of interesting sessions through a period of 2 days with policy makers, industry experts, economists, financial experts, law practioners, academics discussed and deliberated on the prospects of growth, challenges, global economic and financial issues and more affecting the Indian economy.
Other distinguished speakers at the the Global Finance Conclave included Dr. K.P. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; Dr. Sumeet Jerath, Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat; Dr. M.V. Rajeev Gowda, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha; Dr. Pronab Sen, Programme Director, International Growth Centre, India Programme; Mr. Anant Pratap Singh, Senior Economist, Punjab National Bank; Mr. Nipun Mehrotra, Former Chief Digital Officer, IBM India ; Mr. Krishnan Dharmarajan, Executive Director, Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion; Mr. Mohit Shukla, Managing Director, Head of India Legal and Compliance, Barclays India; Mr. Deepak Maheshwari, Director – Government Affairs, India, ASEAN & China, Symantec Corporation; Ms. Pratibha Jain, Partner, Nishith Desai Associates; Mr. Mr. Deepak Chatterjee, Former Director & CEO, India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited; Mr. Yogesh Mittal, CFO and Strategy, JBM Environment Projects; Mr. Anirban Mukerji, Head, Qualcomm for Good (India and Indonesia); Ms. Sangeeta Singh, Director, EY; Ms. Krithika Ram, Program Director, WEConnect International, India; Dr. Subi Chaturvedi, Distinguished Public Policy Professional & Former Member, UN Multitasker Advisory Group, Internet Governance and Mr. Vjiay Sardana, Member, Commodity Derivates Advisory Committee, SEBI.
The Government of India has put out a bold vision of creating a $5 Trillion economy by 2025. To nearly double the economy in six years will require significant industrial growth coupled with access to infrastructure funds, financial inclusion of a broader section of society, adoption of emerging technologies, and smart trade policies. The conclave aimed at deliberating on questions of the challenges that this posed. With slowdown in the economic growth, is a $5Trillion target too ambitious? What can be done to meet the target?
The Global Finance Conclave, was hosted by Jindal School of Banking & Finance, JGU on 17th and 18th September, 2019 in New Delhi. JGU is celebrating its tenth-year anniversary of its founding. It was conferred an ‘Institute of Eminence’ by the Ministry of Human Resources development on September 17th.
