PremiumFinance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday at a book launch event stated that the regulating authorities of the state need to parallel with the changes the country is witnessing after the pandemic
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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today said that the regulating institutions of India need to align with the changes the country is witnessing. She asserted that regulators will have to be ahead of the times as regulations cannot be after the damage is done. She was addressing the audience as the keynote speaker at the release of book titled Recalibrate: Changing Paradigm at the Delhi School of Economics.
The union minister said the book, authored by 15th Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh and Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr PK Mishra, has come at a time when India is at a cusp of a change after the pandemic.
She emphasised that it is time for multilateral institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to recalibrate their functioning to remain relevant in the post-pandemic world. Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement about reform in multilateral institutions, the finance minister said they have to make themselves relevant for the 21st century.
"The series of global calamities, some which are directly affecting the financial sector, have made the debate necessary and not just the debate, I think it's time for multilateral institutions also to make themselves relevant by seriously taking a call at recalibration," she said.
The finance minister quoted Dr Mishra about the use of technology in public welfare for dealing with the pandemic and how India fared well with the initiatives like CoWin and Aarogya Setu. She further stated, “…the countries which have less command over technology and its application were still grappling to see, how relief could reach their ordinary citizens."
Calling Dr. Mishra a global authority on disaster management, Sitharaman quoted one the subtitles from the book, “Risk is global for all of us, but resilience is local." She also applauded his call to make resilience and anti-fragility a part of India's growth story, instead of keeping it in separate silos.
Talking about the contribution of NK Singh, President of Institute of Economic Growth and Chairman of 15th Finance Commission, she emphasised the role of regulators in the economy. "Regulators need to align with the changes the country is witnessing", she said. “Delaying regulations can hit people and also institutions," she added.
The union minister called Singh an authority on fiscal management and quoted his remark “The politics of freebies trumps the norms of such responsible behaviour, and much debate is required there." She reiterated that a wider debate is needed over 'freebies'.
She acknowledged that the book makes a strong case for setting up of Fiscal Council to further strengthen the fiscal discipline and the need of another institution for better coordination between the GST Council and the Finance Commission.
She stated, "The pandemic has shown the world that India's institutions can rise to the occasion even if it's a Black Swan (event) and address the stress points of the economy and we could build on and give impetus to growth."
During the pandemic, she said, various institutions like the GST Council, Finance Commission, cabinet secretariat, Prime Minister's Office and finance ministry played a very critical role in dealing with the situation.
She concluded her address hoping that the book, Recalibrate: Changing Paradigm generates good debate which are less passionate and more of thinking kind. Stating that such debates are often missing, she asserted that it is role of universities and educational departments to power these discussions.