Davos 2023 | PLI, GST-like reforms to help India remain a bright spot: Niti Aayog's Param Iyer

World economic forum

India will continue to be a bright spot growing at 6.8 percent, showing its resilience in the face of global headwinds, said Parameswaran Iyer, chief executive officer (CEO) of Niti Aayog.

In an exclusive conversation with Moneycontrol at the the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 annual meeting, held in the Swiss ski resort town Davos, Iyer said that the government has undertaken a number of structural reforms in the last few years such as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), Production-Linked Incentive (PLI), and Goods and Services Tax (GST) - which will keep the India economy in good stead.

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The most recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pegged India to be a bright spot in an increasingly gregarious global environment and India is in a better position to deal with global headwinds than many other countries, as per the World Bank.

The Niti Aayog CEO said that he is confident that India will continue to remain a bright spot as jobs have improved and inflation has balanced, however, "we need to be careful and cautiously optimistic", he said.

In terms of India's contingency at the WEF, Iyer said that at a time of India's G20 presidency, there is a very large contingent with four ministers from the government and several personalities from the private sector.

"India is open for businesses on a numbers of counts. In terms of our growth trajectory, our strong manufacturing and export performance, our incentivisation like the PLI scheme. So overall, India is one of the strongest  foreign direct investment (FDI) destinations," Iyer said.

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He added that India continues to shine bright while stepping out of the pandemic blues, Russia-Ukraine uncertainty, and other global headwinds and that a "lot of countries and businesses are counting on India to succeed".

The chief of the government think-tank also highlighted that Budget 2023 will push growth further and create jobs, and MSMEs along with the agriculture sector will be a prime focus in the Budget.