Congress leader Rahul Gandhi stressed the need to move from a growth-centric approach to a job-centric approach. He expressed his view on the economy during a discussion with former US Secretary of State, Nicholas Burns, who is a professor at the country's Harvard Kennedy School.
Gandhi was responding to a question posed to him on what will be Gandhi’s policies if he was elected as a Prime Minister. During the online discussion, Gandhi said, "I would move from just a growth-centric idea to a job-centric idea. I would say, we need growth but we are going to do everything to push production and job creation and value addition.”
He claimed that the present growth is lacking a co-relation between production, job creation and value addition. Meanwhile, talking about 9 per cent and no job creation has no value.
Commenting on the need to boost the economy, the former Congress president suggested that people need to have more cash in hand. This will allow for rise in consumption and lead to growth.
Taking about the role of public sector, Gandhi said while the private sector has a lot of areas to thrive, some areas should be left to the public sector to operate. The government should build an enabling infrastructure and let the private sector build on that, he stated.
Commenting on agriculture reforms, Gandhi stated it is absolutely necessary to reform agriculture, but while doing so the government at the centre cannot attack the foundation of the agriculture system. He stressed there is a need to have a conversation while implementing reforms. Or else there will be reactions.
