India's success in sustaining high growth and poverty alleviation will substantially contribute to achieving the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals, a top policy adviser to the Indian Government has said.
“Improving the lives of 1.4 billion Indians would make a major dent in the goal of improving the lives of all humanity. The process of doing so will bring forth technologies and pathways to progress that can be shared with other developing countries to enable them to also share in the increased prosperity,” NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Tuesday.
Panagariya was speaking at an event co-organised by RIS (Research and Information System for Developing Countries) and Permanent Mission of India. He said India's success in sustaining high growth and poverty alleviation will contribute in substantial measure to the success of the SDGs.
He stressed that the importance of robust economic growth cannot be overstated since growth depends on well-functioning infrastructure and policies that enhance productivity. “Without it, none of our objectives, be it eradication of poverty, empowerment of women, provision of basic services or even protection of environment and reversing climate change, would be possible by 2030.”
In the end, growth is what creates employment opportunities at decent wages for the masses thereby giving them the means to access on their own basic amenities of life such as food, clothing, housing, education and health,” he said.