Inclusive growth at heart of India's development goal: Radhakrishnan

New Delhi: India's next phase of development will need to ensure that economic growth reaches all sections of the society and every region of the country, Vice President CP Radhakrishnan said on Saturday. He stressed that economic resilience cannot be separated from social resilience.

Addressing the first session of the three-day Kautilya Economic Conclave, he said, "The true measure of resilience is our ability to ensure that no citizen, no region is left behind. GDP (gross domestic product) alone cannot be the measure of development."

The theme of the annual conclave, organised jointly by the finance ministry and the Institute of Economic Growth, is 'Resilience in an Age of Flux'.


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Radhakrishnan said India had moved from being an underdeveloped economy to a developing economy and is now working to become a developed economy, with inclusive growth at the centre of that transition.

The vice president mentioned India's strong 7.8% growth in the April-June quarter, as well as the upgrade of its sovereign rating by a Japanese credit rating agency. "This reflects greater confidence in the strength of our economy and public finances," he said.

Pointing to the speed of technological advances and geopolitical and economic challenges, he said change is the only constant. In such an environment, policymakers need to remain flexible to respond to changing ground realities. "In these times of flux, we need decisiveness embodied in consensus," he said.

India's future resilience would also depend on strengthening its research ecosystem and expanding collaboration with global institutions, said Radhakrishnan.

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The vice president described the goods and services tax as India's biggest tax reform and said it had contributed to the formalisation of the economy. He also highlighted the increase in financial inclusion achieved through the Jan Dhan Yojana, which enabled direct benefit transfer.