Our Bureau
New Delhi
Former Chief of Niti Aayog and G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant in an interview talked about how the decisions made by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, is set to dampen the mutual trust between the two countries that has been built over the last two decades.
Mr. Kant highlighted the harsh language used by President Trump calling the Indian economy a dead economy that has led to Indians simply losing trust in the US as a partner they can rely on in the future. He has also stated that India should not compromise and lose autonomy just because a country is resorting to bullying.
Mr Kant said, “What Donald Trump has done, by his harsh use of words, including saying that the Indian economy is a dead economy, is that Indians are increasingly losing trust in the United States’ ability to be a reliable partner for India in the long run.”
While talking about Trump’s decision to penalise India if they continue the import of crude oil from Russia, Kant said, “I think simply by bullying and putting you under pressure, India should never compromise. We must maintain strategic autonomy. We never did this even during the Cold War, so there’s no question of doing it now.”
The former Niti Ayog chief believes that India needs to become much more competitive globally and for that they need to work much more in the country first. He stated several measures like reducing personal taxes, making GST more efficient that the country needs to deploy so that they can be a global power.
“We need to become far more globally competitive… There’s a lot of homework to be done by us in terms of labor reforms, in terms of reducing the cost of energy, so on, so that making GST far more efficient, reducing personal taxes, many other things, including ensuring bringing down the statutory liquidity ratio so that your interest rates can come down, so that you are able to then ensure that your producers are able to export and penetrate global markets,” he said.
