India will bounce back from COVID-19: Amitabh Kant

NEW DELHI: Noting the emergence of "green shoots" in the economy, NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant on Tuesday emphasised that India will soon bounce back from the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 crisis.

Citing examples of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), he said key sectors like FMCG have already come back to work in positive signs to bring back the economy from the crisis.

"I am optimistic that we will bounce back with vengeance," Kant said while addressing a session on 'Role of the Creative Economy in Nation Building' on FICCI digital forum.

"We are already witnessing the emergence of green shoots in the economy."

Kant said that India must identify 12-13 sectors in which it can be a global champion and suggested that all of us need to be very clear that the pandemic is a massive challenge not just for India but for the world.

He, meanwhile, said that every crisis is also an opportunity and we must pick up areas of growth which will help us emerge as winners for tomorrow.

Elaborating on the potential areas, the NITI Aayog CEO said that the areas like data, genomics, mobility, drones, creative industry along with media and entertainment will be key drivers of growth. "These sectors will take India to a sustained level of growth in the next 10-12 years and create a vast number of jobs."

Kant further stated that while COVID-19 has brought in a 'New Normal', it will be innovation which will be the key in the new normal. The people who will survive will be those who will work with technology, capturing the sunrise sectors of growth while data and the use of AI will drive growth, he said.

"India often gets into the areas of sunset industries and then it becomes difficult to penetrate the global market's size and scale. India will get into the new areas of growth and these areas will have huge disruptions," Kant said.

Enumerating the importance of the Atmanirbhar Bharat programme launched by the government, Kant said that through this, the government has brought radical reforms in various sectors like MSME and agriculture.

"Atmanirbhar Bharat is not about isolation. It is about becoming a global champion," he said. On the role of public and private sector partnerships, he said that the role of technology and the use of digital platforms is increasing.

"We are in touch with the private sector to build super apps in areas like education, health, agriculture. Our objective will be that the business model will be of the private sector and the government backing will give them the size and scale to reach domestic as well as global markets," Kant added. Highlighting the importance of data, Kant said that in India, we are seeing data at very low price points and India's usage of data will be enormous. (IANS)

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