‘Indian private sector’s appetite for high risk opens up new opportunities’
Mint's editor-in-chief Ravi Krishnan at the Mint India Investment Summit 2024. In a fireside chat, Sitharaman also said that though the Centre-state relationship has been highly politicised recently, it hasn't deteriorated. The finance minister emphasised that states such as Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal would have to become the engine of India’s growth.
The government’s approach is not just to uplift these states but to empower them so as to trigger further growth, Sitharaman said. Edited excerpts: Sitharaman: I think in the last 20, 30 years, or even since 1991, whether it is urged by the IMF or whether India itself has been working towards wanting to reform its economy or bring in reforms in various aspects of the economy, it's always been addressed to the Centre. During covid and also afterwards, we have been working with the states to say, if there are things that we can extend to the states, we would extend, but certainly, would you mind taking up some reform in the power sector? Would you mind taking up some reform in the 'one nation, one ration card' (scheme), and so on? And many states have enthusiastically come forward and… now they are in a position to say that these (reforms) have helped them.
It's now the time for taking it down further because eventually when businesses have to start or investments have to come, they have to be grounded somewhere. And that is at the level of some village, at the level of some periphery in a city. And in those places, if elected bodies are not aware or are not ready to be open, transparent, and welcoming, everything that we do will be on paper and not on the ground.
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