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Informist, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025

 

MUMBAI – Moving compliance to digital platforms does not mean deregulation, Chief Economic Adviser to the Government V. Anantha Nageswaran said on Tuesday. He was talking about the need for easy-to-navigate regulatory road maps to expand the economy.

 

"Much of the action has to happen from the country, the moment they put something on a digital platform, they think that it's deregulation. But that's not deregulation. You just made it online rather than offline," Nageswaran said. 

 

There is a need to identify low-hanging fruits in terms of minute compliances and inspection procedures and get them out of the way, Nageswaran said. "...no country has reached the development stages without having a very vibrant small and medium enterprise sector. Whether it is in manufacturing or in services, I think that to get there, you need to get the opportunity for a number of regulations and remove them," he said. 

 

The Indian private sector also needs to ensure that it doesn't compromise on energy security in pursuit of energy transition, Nageswaran said. "India needs to strike the right balance because unless we grow, unless we generate resources, we cannot pursue sustained energy transition. And for a country of this size, if we end up moving fast towards non-fossil fuels, then what will happen is energy intermittency will begin to play a very big role and you need to have so much of backup that the capital cost will go completely haywire," he said. 

 

So, the private sector has to be aware that while energy transition may work intermittently for the likes of Europe, even those regions were re-starting coal-fired power plants to ensure uninterrupted power for households and businesses, he said. 

 

On the recent volatility in the rupee, Nageswaran said he wasn't sure that the Indian currency would continue to depreciate against the dollar going ahead. If inflation in developed economies remains sticky and India is able to keep inflation around 3-4% rather than 5%, the gap between the two would shrink a lot and this would help the rupee, he said. 

 

Nageswaran also said there was no need to be "too concerned" about what was currently happening with the local currency. "This is an extraordinary period of dollar strength which has lasted quite long," he said.  End

 

Reported by Kabir Sharma and Sourabh Kumar

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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