The Indian economy could notch up a growth rate of 10 per cent in the next few years if the sluggish bureaucratic decision-making was speeded up, the systemic inefficiencies in the government removed and the leakage and pilferage in anti-poverty programmes were effectively plugged, Dr. Kaushik Basu, Chief Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, said here today.

Giving the keynote address at the Bharat Ram Memorial Seminar on ‘Global Economic Crisis: Back to Keynes?’ organized by the Shri Ram Centre for IR & HR (SRC) and FICCI, Dr. Basu said, “We need to attack the system of delivery in our anti-poverty programmes that is riddled with leakages and pilferages and the structure of government functioning needs to be reformed to bring down transaction costs. These along with the high savings and investment rate of 38 per cent will be sufficient to enable India to reach the 10 per cent growth rate mark within a few years.”

Dr. Basu said, while the stimulus packages have helped in the economic revival in recent months, it must be understood that certain schemes of the government like the NREGS, the debt waiver and placing more money in the hands of the people through the pay commission recommendations, have enabled the country to withstand the global economic crisis in a much stronger way than the developed western economies.

The high savings and investment rate, he said, had put India on a good wicket, and this rate could rise to 40 per cent given the propensity to save and invest of its youthful population. Such a rate of savings and investment will trigger a sustained growth of the economy, he said.

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