Need innovative economic system in post-Covid world: NITI Aayog vice chairman

The Indian economy will be among the top economies in the world in the next few years and an innovative economic system is needed in the post-Covid world to remain floating, NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar said.

While addressing a webinar organised recently to celebrate the golden jubilee of the department of science and technology (DST), Kumar said the Indian economy will be among the top economies in the world in the next few years using science, technology, and innovation in all sectors, bouncing back soon from the after-effects of Covid-19.

He said that the pandemic has changed many things and also shown new ways of doing things, many of which are going to stay in the post-Covid world. “We need to have an innovative economic system in the post-Covid world to remain floating,” he added.

The economy post-Covid has been in the recovery mode after the first quarter, Kumar said and hoped it will bounce back in the next few quarters from the effects of Covid-19 disruptions will grow by average 7-8% in the next 20-30 years and become the third-largest economy by 2047. “Steps and reforms have been taken by the government in all the sectors, like agriculture, modern medicine, traditional medicine, New Education Policy, Small & Medium Enterprises, labour sector and so on, to target being among the world’s top three economies,” the NITI Aayog vice chairman added.

On Sunday, Kumar told news agency PTI said that India’s economic growth is likely to reach pre-Covid-19 levels by the end of 2021-22 fiscal as the GDP contraction in this financial year is expected to be less than 8%.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also revised its forecast of economic growth for the current fiscal year (2020-21) to (-)7.5 per cent as against its earlier forecast of (-)9.5 per cent.