India May Privatise or Shut 46 PSUs — NITI Ayog
In the first 100 days of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second term, a slew of ‘big-bang’ economic reforms that should please foreign investors are likely to be pursued, according to a top official at the government’s main think-tank.
The reforms will include changes in labour laws, privatisation moves and creation of land banks for new industrial development, said Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman of NITI Aayog (National Institute for Transforming India), who reports directly to Modi.
“They (foreign investors) will have reasons to be happy. You will see a slew of reforms I can assure you of that. We are going to pretty much hit the ground running,” Kumar told Reuters in an interview.
Modi is the chairman of the think-tank.
Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were declared last week landslide winners of India’s general election with an increased majority in the lower house of parliament.
He was sworn into office for his second term on Thursday night.
Kumar was speaking before Modi on Thursday announced members of his new cabinet.
NITI Aayog, which now acts as the main centre for policy making and for driving new ideas, was founded four years back when Modi scrapped the 65-year-old planning commission, saying that India was stifled with Soviet-style bureaucracy.
Kumar said that reforms in India’s complicated labour laws will see the light of day as early as the next parliamentary session in July, when the government will place a new bill before the lower house for approval.
