NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya says low sentiments remain

NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya has said that the nothing has-changed-on the-ground sentiment remains though the economy is showing signs of turnaround.

The comments assume significance as they come from the first chief of newly constituted body NITI Aayog, which replaced the decades-old Planning Commission.

At a conference 'Building India: A Shared Responsibility' at the CII annual session in the national capital on Tuesday, Panagariya also said that it will take some time before major results show up as there is a new government which came with a lot of promises.

"Narasimha Rao brought reforms, Atal Bihari Vajpayee did reforms. Lots of reforms have been done under NDA-I. At the end of the day, it was in 2003-04, after a very long leg... let us see the results in a big way," he said.

"It takes time; you have to persist because populism has a much easier way to win", he said.

Panagariya's comments follow Parliamentary and urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu asking industry on Monday to have some patience.

On a question on labour unions and problems arising due to that, Panagariya said that it is one of the minor issues with industry and labour unions are an integral part of any democratic set-up.

Panagariya said that the liberalisation reforms of 1991s have completely changed his mind about India's growth story.

"Thinking about 1980s, I used to think that we can't get anywhere. We have now got rid of the licence permit raj, we have opened up foreign investment. The 1991s came, it completely changed my mind."

On role of the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog towards states, the noted Indian-American economist said that the institution wants to solve problems of the states and to give them a road map for development.