Economic Survey 2018: Focus on educated, healthy labour force
New Delhi: The Economic Survey on Monday set the agenda for 2018-19 — privatising Air India, the complete recapatilisation of PSU banks and stabilising GST implementation to remove uncertainty for exporters.
“If these objectives are achieved, the world economy maintains its growth momentum, and oil prices do not persist at current levels, the Indian economy should resume converging towards its medium-term growth potential that previous Economic Surveys have estimated to exceed eight per cent," it said. India would then regain its status as the fastest growing major economy, the Survey added.
The government had announced last year that there would be disinvestment in Air India but the extent of it is yet to be decided. It had constituted an inter-ministerial group to chalk out strategy in this regard. The government owns 100 per cent of Air India.
The Economic Survey said over the medium term, three areas of policy focus stand out - employment (finding good jobs for the young and burgeoning workforce, especially women), education (creating an educated and healthy labour force) and agriculture (raising farm productivity while strengthening agricultural resilience).