New Delhi, Jan 4 (IANS) A senior financial advisor to the government Monday said the economy could grow at 10 percent in the next few years if systemic inefficiencies were removed and anti-poverty programmes effectively implemented.
“The Indian economy could notch up a growth rate of 10 percent in the next few years if the sluggish bureaucratic decision-making was speeded-up, systemic inefficiencies in the government removed and the leakage and pilferage in anti-poverty programmes were effectively plugged,” said Kaushik Basu, the chief economic adviser in the finance ministry.

In an address at the Bharat Ram Memorial Seminar on “Global Economic Crisis: Back to Keynes?”, Basu said: “We need to attack the system of delivery in our anti-poverty programmes that is riddled with leakages and pilferages and the structure of government functioning needs to be reformed to bring down transaction costs.”

These, along with the high savings and investment rate of 38 percent, will be sufficient to enable India to reach the 10 per cent growth rate mark within a few years, he added.

The high savings and investment rate could rise to 40 percent given the propensity to save and invest among Indians, Basu said, adding: “Such a rate of savings and investment will trigger sustained growth of the economy.”

In an interaction with reporters later, he said the government had no plans to announce any monetary tightening measures as of now.

“There is no expectation of monetary tightening, nor do I believe there is a reason for it. It is a very sector-specific inflation which is taking place.”

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had Dec 24 said the economy could grow by 7.5 percent to 8 percent during the current financial year, though price rise and fiscal consolidation remained areas of concern.