Page 130 - Abhivruddhi

demand and consumption of variety of goods and services. Mention was
made of low-cost housing sector as one with significant impact.
It was felt that pharma sector has not yet achieved its true potential.
There is a need to reduce red tape to enable faster clearances to boost
domestic manufacturing and attract FDI.
Respondents noted that privatization of Air India and impending
privatization of LIC would enhance their performance and contribute
towards GDP.
A key sector that is languishing is agriculture and allied activities such
as agro-processing. However, it was felt that the PLI scheme is likely to
benefit this sector which has tremendous export potential as well.
Amidst all this there was a word of caution as well. As one respondent
put it, “There’s no point just shortlisting key sectors to fuel growth – the key
is to find out gaps in terms of resources including skillsets, infrastructure
and logistics and address them”.

Gati Shakti
Gati Shakti is a national master plan for multi-modal connectivity.
The aim is to bring about integrated planning and implementation of
infrastructure and connectivity projects towards seamless movement of
people and goods from one mode of transport to another to ensure last
mile connectivity. This initiative, amongst other things, includes a digital
platform involving 16 ministries including Railways and Roadways.
Respondents cautioned that all of this sounds nice as a plan but the
underlying physical infrastructure should not become a bottleneck. This
is a real concern as an Economic Times report dated 24th April 2022
stated that 80 projects have been identified by Ministry of Shipping Ports
and Waterways, 38 by Ministry of Steel and 13 by Coal ministry where

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