CEA bats for advancing land, labour reforms

Chief Economic Adviser emphasizes seizing global crisis as opportunity for reforms, highlighting India's promising macroeconomic outlook and growth potential.

Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran on Tuesday underscored the need for India to view the crisis in global economy as an opportunity to introduce more reforms, especially land and labour.

India’s macroeconomic picture may be one of smooth sailing despite turbulent global waters. Yet the “ongoing or brewing crisis” in global economy presents an opportunity to advance the cause of reforms in factor markets like land, labour and even intangible factor of production like knowledge, he told a Data User’s Conference the NSO, Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation organised at the Indian School of Business here on Tuesday.

Countries use crises as opportunities to surge ahead in prosperity and standards of living, Mr.Nageswaran said, seeking to highlight the growth opportunities emerging amid the China +1 production strategy of global firms.

“Right now, India’s macro numbers paint a very promising picture. As per the Second Advanced estimates published by the National Statistics Office, the GDP real and nominal growth rates have been pegged at 6.5% and 9.9% respectively in 2024-25. This is the highest amount the major economies of the world,” he said. The conference was on the results of Annual Survey of Unincorporated Sector Enterprises (ASUSE) 2023-24 and the Forward-Looking Survey on Private Sector Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) Investment Intentions.

Noting granular data is crucial for building conviction for policy reform, Mr. Nageswaran said the findings of the two surveys provide insights into the state of the health of the private sector. Much remains to be done from that perspective, he said, adding how “firms don’t seem to be keen on opportunistic effects, which this survey defines as investment on new business activities expected to have more profitability or scope in the future.” An indication of this is meagre share of research and development in the provisional capex per enterprise. Large enterprises ought to pursue a medium to long term thinking beyond short term profitability, he said.

Secretary to MoSPI Saurabh Garg highlighted enhancements in data dissemination through an upgraded portal featuring API access, interactive visualisations and strategic collaborations with academic and global partners.

The conference was aimed to foster constructive dialogue between data producers and data users, facilitating knowledge exchange and showcasing India’s rigorous data collection as a foundation for transformative policy reforms, the organisers said in a release.