It is advantage India, says Economic Forum

NEW DELHI: The global environment is in India's favour but the execution, speed of distribution and implementation of reforms are critical focal points for the country.

This emerged at the India Economic Summit 2005, organized jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) that concluded here on Tuesday.

India needs to reduce government deficit through proper pricing and targeted subsidies for long term gains. Reforms need to percolate down to the state level. Reducing bureaucracy by streamlining government procedures to make them more transparent and effective was another key point.

The summit made several recommendations on growth drivers within India. It should maximize the demographic dividend by improving education, innovative vocational training and re-skilling the workforce.

India could become the knowledge hub of the world using ICT, encouraging innovation and research while simultaneously enforcing intellectual property rights (IPR).

India needs to deepen the links between its urban and rural economies that would unleash the demand potential of 600 million people who currently earns less than $2 a day.

It could develop its manufacturing capabilities by encouraging foreign investment, increasing scale and continuing to set up special economic zones.

The summit recommended that India should play a proactive role in strengthening the global security environment through sustained dialogue. It needs to make the promotion of democracy a part of its foreign policy so that is acts as a role model for other developing nations.

On international relations, the summit recommended that the country should deepen its relationship with the US in trade, security and knowledge transfer to expand the global free market.