India's growth story lost lustre under Manmohan Singh government: Amit Bhaduri

PANAJI: The successful Indian growth story suffered a setback as the rate of employment generation remained stagnated due to reliance of the erstwhile Manmohan Singh regime on corporate houses, according to noted economist Amit Bhaduri.

"There was something that changed during the Manmohan Singh government period. Employment growth came down drastically in India," said Bhaduri, a faculty at the Council for Social Development.

He was delivering a lecture on "the development model India needs," organised jointly by the International Centre Goa and Goa University.

"While the market increased externally and internally, but it didn't created the employment growth," Bhaduri said, adding that the employment growth remained stagnated because the then government was depending on the corporate houses.

"The growth of employment was limited because it was led by large corporate houses. Depending on the corporate houses is not the solution," Bhaduri added.

He said that the record of last few years shows imports increased compared to exports.

Bhaduri said the solution for this problem is decentralisation of power. "The power should be given to the local bodies. We have to start with fiscal autonomy to gram sabhas or lowest level of bodies," he added.

The economist said that growth with employment should be the outcome of the government policies.