Major reforms unlikely before 2014 polls, says chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu
WASHINGTON: Major economic reforms in India would hit a roadblock and are unlikely to happen before the next parliamentary elections slated for 2014, chief economic adviser Kaushik Basu has said.
Addressing a meeting at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Wednesday, an eminent Washington-based thinktank, Basu said that relatively less important bills might go through Parliament.
After 2014, he said, "you would see a rush of important reforms" and after 2015 India would be one of the "fastest growing" economies of the world. The new government, if in a majority, would start with the reforms in a big way because there is a sense that it needs to pick up, Basu added.
At the same time, he said, there were some reforms that needed to go into fast gear and identified opening up of the retail sector as one key reform in waiting. India, he said, also needed to address the issue of massive subsidy leakage and that of poor infrastructure.
After the elections, the government of the day would take reforms on fast track and there would be a flurry of reforms, Basu said in his address.
Kaushik Basu said there is a slowdown in decision making. The unearthing of a series of corruption and scams, he argued, is having its own impact on the psyche of the bureaucracy, that is not willing to take risks.
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