A group of economists and scientists, who recently held a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister on how to revive the economy hit by COVID-19, will submit a detailed action plan to the state government listing suggestions for accelerating the state's growth.
They would provide inputs on what can be done to revive growth in the short, mid and long terms, eminent scientist Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, who is the president of Pune International Centre, a think tank, told PTI on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had a detailed virtual meeting on Tuesday with economist Vijay Kelkar, HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, former diplomats Vijay Gokhale and Gautam Bambawale, Mashelkar and other members of the Pune International Centre (PIC).
"Experts from PIC, chief secretary and other officials will prepare an action plan in which it will be decided what can be done in the short-term, mid-term and long term-period and what benefits the state can get," Dr Mashelkar said.
Since PIC has members with diverse expertise, it had come up with some policy papers on agriculture, industries, education and other issues during the last year's state Assembly elections. In January this year, those papers were shared with the chief minister, who liked them, he said.
He said when the COVID-19 crisis started, the chief minister had sought inputs on how the economy can be revived post-COVID and mandated them to submit the recommendations.
"We then shared recommendations in the form of papers on economic measures of accelerated recovery, foreign investment, measures to deal with COVID-19 health care crisis.
"We also gave inputs on big projects to accelerate the growth and create employment generations, in which a suggestion was made to consider starting the Konkan refinery project which has the potential to generate employment for one lakh people and garner Rs 3 lakh crore investment," he said.
The crux of the meeting was how to revive the economy, Mashelkar said.
"So it was decided to work on three issues - real estate, mega projects and how to improve ease of doing business," he said.
He said both the chief minister and the DyCM were extremely positive about the inputs, suggestions and recommendations made by members on these subjects.
"We have now been asked to submit a detailed action plan on these topics," he added.
