GST holds key to India’s growth: Vijay Kelkar

Welcoming the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST), noted economist and former chairman of the finance commission, Vijay Kelkar, said once implemented it would make India a single market, thereby further improving the productivity and growth. Delivering a lecture on ‘India rising: the growth dynamics’ on the first day of the Vasant Vyakhyanmala on Thursday, Kelkar said the two major factors for the acceleration of the growth that India witnessed were globalisation and reforms in the last decades. “Due to economic reforms and by becoming an open economy the country has gained a lot. Exports & imports, knowledge and investment flow have improved tremendously because of this. The capital account convertibility for foreign players has become easier and foreign direct investment has become a major success,” he said. “Children between the age of 1 and 14 and adults from 60 and above are considered consumers. It is estimated that the country’s working population that falls between these two categories will be the highest in the overall population in the next two decades. This obviously will drive the overall growth,” said Kelkar.  He said facts show that in India every year one million people are emerging out of the BPL category.