Towards a Viksit Bharat: The farm sector must play a bigger role in our economy
India’s ambition to become a developed nation by 2047 depends on the strategic implementation of enabling reforms. While innovative ideas have been proposed for a Viksit Bharat, the primary sector has largely been left out. Despite being home to 18% of the world population with a median age of 28.2 years, we tend to overlook our core strength—i.e., domestic private consumption, which constitutes nearly 61% of GDP—while focusing on export-led growth.
While the idea of accelerating to a new growth orbit by raising the industrial sector’s share of national output is widely accepted, and also expected to make India a self-reliant economy, it may not be sufficient to feed our masses, let alone livestock. It may also mean inadequate support for our small-scale industries, including sunrise sectors like food processing, which alone contributes 11.6% of gross value added (GVA) in the agriculture sector and 10.5% of GVA in manufacturing, apart from contributing significantly to employment and investment. In its July 2023 bulletin, the Reserve Bank of India argued for raising the contribution of the industrial sector to 35% of GDP in the next 24 years from its present level of 25.6%.
Historically, farm-sector growth has been slow, with industry and services relied upon for fast expansion. Like many other economies, India leapfrogged from the primary to the services sector, which now accounts for over 60% of GDP. At which sector’s cost can industry get another 10% share? With rising aspirations and fast urbanization, demand for services is only going to rise and its share is likely to expand.
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