NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has said that the government is determined to take India back to a high trajectory growth rate of 8-9 percent and the real challenge before the country is to sustain that growth. His comments come at a time when the government has taken a number of measures to boost the economy that has slipped to 6-year low of 5% in April-June quarter of 2019-20.
Kant said ‘but if we have to do this for the next three decades, energy (sector) has to be at the centre of this economical growth,' adding that no country in the world has been able to grow for long periods of time without focusing on energy and managing it efficiently. He stated that India's current energy consumption per capita was only about one third of the world average, and if India aspires to be a developed nation its per capita energy consumption should increase many folds.
NITI Aayog CEO further said ‘though we are comparatively an energy efficient economy, the energy requirement per unit of GDP is much lower than the world average and we would be taking all measure to increase this efficiency further.’ He also said several measures have been taken by the government to revive the sagging economy. He added that the RBI has brought down repo rate to the tune of 110 basis points this year and the finance minister has undertaken four economic boosters.