NITI Aayog vice chairman expects boost for agriculture in India’s growth strategy

United Nations, July 17 (IANS) Agriculture is expected to get more importance in India’s growth strategy, and this is likely to be reflected in the upcoming budget, according to Suman Beri, the vice chairman of India’s NITI Aayog which crafts policies.Asked during an interview with IANS what India’s development goals would be in concrete terms for the coming five years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s current term, he said that it will be unveiled in the budget that is due to be released by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23.President Droupadi Murmu “has indicated that this will be a landmark budget” in her address to Parliament last month, he said.”I think just assessing in a sense, what is being talked about broadly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the agriculture sector gets a lot of attention,” he said.”We’ve given attention to infrastructure, we’ve given attention to the digital economy,” he said. “”The Prime Minister certainly believes that startup culture has a lot of potential”, he said.”But I think that to the extent that the agricultural sector was not an important part of the 1991 [economic] reforms, there’s a lot of potential” for the sector, he said.However, while outlining some of the near-term priorities, Bery said, “We’re not in the business of five-year plans” but “there are certain milestones” coming up.”Firstly, it is expected that India would become the third largest economy from the fifth one before the end of this decade” and “that has certain implications for faster growth rates”, he said.”Second, that focus on capital investment will continue,” he said.”Third”, Bery said, “we have made commitments to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change about the direction of our energy” away from fossil fuels to renewable energy.”I would pay particular attention to the energy intensity commitments under the nationally determined contributions” which countries make to reduce their greenhouse gas output.(Arul Louis can be contacted at [email protected] and followed at @arulouis)–IANSarul/svn