India must become first country to industrialize through decarbonization: Amitabh Kant at CII

States must create conducive environment for private sector to flourish: Amitabh Kant.

India must be the first country in the world to industrialise through a process of decarbonization, said Mr Amitabh Kant, G20 India Sherpa. Noting that India did not pollute the world and only accounts for 1.3 per cent of the GHG emissions, he said that this feat will add value to both Indian Industry and the country. The G20 India Sherpa was speaking during a standalone session on ‘Future of Globalisation: Challenges for Indian Industry’ at the CII Annual Business Summit 2024 in New Delhi.

Mr Kant said that the Central Government has done a lot of work in terms of infrastructure. “It took its Capex spending as a component of GDP from 1 per cent to about 4 per cent in the last three to four years,” he said and added that the quality of Indian roads and airports is better than Europe now. He also lauded the country’s digital leap in the last few years and highlighted the need to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. Lauding Indian companies for making significant strides in green hydrogen, he said that India needs to take advantage of its climate and leverage renewable energy to crack water and produce hydrogen, becoming the biggest and cheapest producer of green hydrogen. He said India should become the biggest exporter of green hydrogen and the biggest manufacturer of electrolysers.

The G20 Sherpa noted that India has carried out numerous structural reforms and moved out of the fragile five to the top five. “It is the fifth largest economy in the world and will overtake Germany and Japan by 2027 to become the third largest. Over about 30 per cent of the global GDP growth will come from India between 2035-40. This is a rare opportunity for India if the country is able to carry out major structural reforms, create jobs and drive growth,” he said. India should look at this opportunity to create 12-13 champion states, which will make doing business in the region extremely easy and simple. States must create an environment where the private sector must flourish, he said adding that without private sector growth, India will find it difficult to grow at 9-10 per cent for the next three decades.

Urging Indian companies to start thinking globally, he said that the Industry must scale up to penetrate the global market. He expressed satisfaction that Indian companies have started to “think big” but noted that this trend needs to accelerate. Creating a sense of urgency, he said that the next few years are crucial for the long-term growth of the country. “India needs to fire on all cylinders. It can’t grow on the back of the services sector only. India needs to become a manufacturing nation. It needs to create a vast number of job. We should become a major manufacturing and export nation,” he added.

Mr Kant said that 45 per cent of the labour force in agriculture is too high and called for a shift towards manufacturing. He said that manufacturing needs to be planned so that it leads to new cities being created in India. Talking about the need to urbanize in a sustainable manner, he laid emphasis on enhancing agriculture productivity and urbanisation in a planned, sustainable, compact and dense manner. He also called judicial reforms a key to India’s growth and advocated for the need for process updation, technology integration, reduction in adjournments and an online dispute resolution system.

Mr Jamshyd N Godrej, Chairman & Managing Director, Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited moderated the session.

18 May 2024

New Delhi