Political leadership should think beyond elections, plan long term on jobs: Rajan

Stressing that the National Education Policy is a good policy, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said that it needs to be implemented on a mission mode. He also emphasised on the need to have a longer framework for job creation and a strong education system leading to a good workforce.

During an interaction on their latest book (Breaking the mould, Reimagining India’s Economic Future) -- Rajan and Economist Rohit Lamba argue that India needs to overcome the ‘China fetish’ and carve a niche where its competency lies – service embedded manufacturing rather than vying for a pace in low-skilled manufacturing, a space china is unlikely to vacate. Rajan said the Chinese model of authoritarian centralised manufacturing oriented growth would have been good twenty years back, but is difficult to replicate that path now for India.

“We argue in the book that India is very good in service-embedded manufacturing. For example, a large part of input in a modern car is services like writing code. This is a service embedded in a final product. We have a headstart in this and are very good at this. Estimates suggest one fifth of chip design happens in India, while we are spending Rs 16,500 crore on setting up a Micron plant. We already have a headstart in designing the chips,” Lamba said, adding that it should not be construed as being opposed to manufacturing but it is all about priorities.