India's exports are the key to unlocking the country's growth potential, according to former Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Friday, May 12. Speaking during the launch of his book, Made in India: 75 Years of Business & Enterprise, Kant stated that India had experienced growth rates of 8-9 percent for four to five years but had not seen sustained growth for decades like other countries.

Share Market Live

NSE

He emphasised that every time India had experienced growth, it had been due to the growth of exports. Kant believes that to achieve growth, India needs companies that can penetrate global markets and achieve size and scale of manufacturing.

"Exports are the key to growth. And that really means that we need companies who will penetrate global markets, we need size and scale of manufacturing. And that's why we brought in the PLI scheme."

Also read: Amitabh Kant: Centre did its bit, now states need to buck up

To support this, India has implemented the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which Kant says is not a subsidy but rather an incentive for companies to increase production every year.

The scheme gives companies the opportunity to become global in size and scale over five years, creating a ripple effect that allows for the growth of tier-II and tier-III manufacturers.

However, Kant says that for large companies to happen in India, many labour laws that were created a long time ago need to be scrapped, decriminalisation needs to be increased, and infrastructure needs to be improved. He believes that with current initiatives such as Gati Shakti, India is taking steps to make these changes.

"So I think for large companies to also happen in India, we need to scrap a lot of labour laws which were made a long time back, we need to decriminalize a lot which the Prime Minister is pushing for, you need to make your infrastructure far more easy because your logistic costs are high, that's what Gati Shakti is doing."

Kant also highlights the potential for India to become a leading producer and exporter of green hydrogen, as it is the only country climatically blessed with top-class entrepreneurship. However, he stresses that this will only be possible with size and scale.

Also read: Cooling inflation very satisfying, shows monetary policy on right track: RBI governor

(Edited by : Pradeep John)