A joint study by industry body Assocham and Thought Arbitrage Research Institute (TARI) has stated that to make government’s most ambitious 'Make in India' programme successful and for the country’s growth, India needs to boost its investment in the infrastructure sector from the current level of 6 per cent to nearly about 10 % of its GDP.
In the study 'Make in India: The next leap', it was stated that pension and insurance funds being long-term investors can be mobilised for infrastructure spending, besides, public-private partnership model should be redesigned through engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model.
The report said India needs to generate 13 million jobs per annum. "The number of people seeking jobs during this period grew by 2.23 per cent per annum while growth in actual employment was 1.4 per cent, leaving a huge gap in job creation. It also said that the culture of entrepreneurship needs to rise in India as only 4.12 per cent of the population in the age group of 18 to 64 was indulged in business. In terms of perception of social values of entrepreneurship, India fares badly.
Stating that land acquisitions were needed to be facilitated for developing physical infrastructure, Assocham said that in order to attract investment Special Economic Zones (SEZs) need to be revived by a systematic review for their failures.