Bringing down import tariffs by at least 50 per cent holds the key to achieve competitiveness in India, former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said. Stating that the Indian economy has not witnessed fast enough growth, Ahluwalia said the underlying challenge is the ineffectiveness to translate broad uncontroversial objectives of competitiveness and growth into concrete and actionable policy programmes yielding results in a time-bound manner. He was speaking at a webinar on improving India s competitiveness for inclusive economic growth by CUTS International on Tuesday. In addition, Ajit Pai, distinguished expert, economics and finance at NITI Aayog, stressed on the need for designing a sequential strategy of policy interventions in order to achieve the objectives of competitiveness.
The commerce ministry will soon seek the Cabinet’s approval for the national logistics policy, which aims to promote seamless movement of goods across the country.
“The policy is at the near-finalisation stage. Consultations with all ministries, departments and other stakeholders have happened. All their views and comments have been factored in. It will soon go for the Cabinet approval,” Pawan Agarwal, special secretary at the commerce ministry’s logistics division, said on Wednesday.
A comprehensive institutional framework is also being set up to ensure the smooth implementation of the policy, Agarwal added. Towards this end, a national logistics council, a central advisory committee on logistics, and an empowered group of secretaries have been planned.
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