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00:00The CII has obviously put out its list of expectations from the budget, representations

00:06have been made to the government as well, and those conversations are ongoing consistently

00:11through the year.

00:12But at this point, and let me begin the conversation with Mr. Sanjeev Puri, Mr. Puri, at this point,

00:18I suppose the biggest question on everyone's mind is, are we going to see the political

00:25realities and the election result in some way reflect into the budget?

00:32Simply put, are we going to see a greater push for consumption, towards employment,

00:37towards the rural sector, and would that be something which is in the best interest of

00:42the economy and industry as well?

00:44Well, you know that right now the economy is in a very strong foundation, there are

00:51a lot of positives, and those positives are a result of a number of policy instruments

00:57that were brought about in the past.

00:59So really what I'm saying is the strategy adopted in the past has worked, it is strengthening

01:06the competitiveness of the economy, it's creating jobs, private sector investment is significant

01:14now, it is at 23.8% of GDP.

01:17I think the mood in India is quite positive, that is shown up also by the internal surveys

01:24of CII.

01:25So if you look at what is important from all stakeholders' perspective is creating quality

01:31jobs at scale.

01:33And the current process is already creating jobs, I think the impact of some of the instruments

01:39that have been put in place, we should see that get better over time.

01:44And the question is really on what more can be done to create good quality jobs, that

01:49will be the very, very question to answer.

01:51So besides continuing the theme that's been on and on, I think there is an opportunity

01:56to provide impetus to certain labour-intensive sectors.

02:02And these include things like toys, apparel, footwear, you know, wood-based industry, tourism,

02:08just to give a few examples.

02:11How can we just realize and work for certain sectors, so there is scope to provide similar

02:17impetus to an employment scheme in the employment-intensive sector.

02:21I think that would be an important one to take care of.

02:25The second is that today, nearly half of India's workforce is in agriculture.

02:32Now, there we are dealing with two issues, we're dealing with the issue of lower incomes,

02:37which is also a part of the economy, ultimately, a better quality of incomes.

02:42And the second is the extreme risks on account of weather events.

02:46And that's what's been hampering the rural economy in the last, you know, years.

02:51And that's why the stress is felt in the rural economy.

02:55So how do we build resilience in agriculture?

02:58How do we kind of improve productivity in the agriculture that gets back to the whole

03:04set of reforms that need to happen?

03:06And how do we bring technology into agriculture?

03:09There are some instruments already at play, but they need to be scaled up and some more

03:13reform needs to happen.

03:15And a very important area that needs to be addressed from rural is this whole area of

03:20resilience in agriculture.

03:22And I think resilience issue is beyond agriculture, it is for other infrastructure, it is for

03:28many more things.

03:29It's for water security, because today water itself is becoming an important area.

03:33So we need to address this issue of adaptation.

03:36So what we are recommending is setting up a national commission on adaptation.

03:40In fact, also a national mission on water.

03:43So we create water security for the society, for industrial establishments.

03:48So these are, you know, all these areas actually go back into the area of economic

03:54growth, of creating good quality jobs.

03:56And therefore, this is what should be in the interest of all stakeholders.

04:01And we have seen in the past that this group is what has given the, you know, good results

04:06so far.

04:07And I think the outcome of the past clearly energised everybody to strengthen the path

04:14rather than deviate from it.

04:16Of course, I do agree that there may be some aspects of economic space in certain areas

04:24to be created, whether it's through some release in income tax or whether it is higher

04:30MNREGA wages, or it is increased in the PM design.

04:34So given that cost of everything has gone up, not only in India, but globally, I think

04:40it's important that some kind of relief is given to people at the lower end.

04:46That, of course, also needs to be dealt with.

Budget 2024: Reforms For Labour Intensive Sectors | NDTV Profit

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