‘India to overtake China in supply of man power’

SURAT: Bakul Dholakia, Director of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), while addressing leading industrialists in Surat at a seminar on ‘Indian Economy — Current State & Future Scenario’ spoke enthusiastically of the country’s economy, pointing out the huge fiscal deficit and slow rate of reforms to be the problem areas in the economy.

During his speech, Dholakia said, “India has developed resilience in recent years. In the past, our economy was highly vulnerable to global events, as well as natural disasters, wars, political instability and other factors.

We have seen these in recent times, but despite this, the economy has registered a robust growth rate of over 8 per cent in the past four years.”

The GDP is growing well, exports are booming and the performance of corporates has been good. What is more remarkable is that all this is happening amidst extremely fierce competition, he added. 

The huge fiscal deficit, high rate of inflation, poverty, appreciation of rupee vis-à-vis other currencies and slow pace of reforms are some of the problem areas for the Indian economy, he warned.

Quoting researches conducted across the globe, Dholakia said that India could be among the top five economic superpowers in the world in 25 years, provided the country’s economy grew at the rate of eight per cent over the next ten years.

“India has achieved close to eight per cent growth in the 10th Five-Year Plan, and there is no reason why a nine per cent growth cannot be achieved in the 11th and subsequent five year plans,” he said.

Dholakia said India will be the largest supplier of manpower by 2025. “Other countries, including China, will have a deficit in human resources by 2025. But India, courtesy half its population being under thirty years, will have a massive surplus,” he said.