Our stakes in returning quickly to a rapid growth curve are high. These are not just in terms of the GDP growth number and the sensex. For us, high growth is imperative to lift the vast number of people from conditions of poverty, to ensure social infrastructure and safety to our one billion-plus population, and to provide gainful employment opportunities to the growing number of our youth, who will reach working age in the coming decade.

The global economic climate is yet uncertain. Some pundits are projecting a V-shaped rebound, suggesting a quick revival after the deep slump. If true, there are risks to such a scenario.

For the short term, there are two issues that need to be addressed — the confidence levels and compensating for consumption shortfall with an aggressive push to investment.

The new government that will emerge after the elections will need to take immediate actions for boosting confidence levels. It will certainly help if the new government comes out clearly with an economic policy package that assures investors, industries and consumers about the stability of the overall policy direction.

It could step up certain economic and institutional reforms that will also act as confidence-boosters. These could include a quicker transition to a Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, push to the disinvestment programme, financial market deepening, relaxation of labour laws for certain employment-intensive sectors, enabling long-term investments into equity markets, encouraging development of markets for municipal bonds and so on. Such announcements could send a strong signal to everyone that the new government is committed to high, inclusive growth.

There is also need to review trade policy dynamics. Many countries have used tariff and non-tariff barriers to protect their industry while, on the other hand, there are concerns about dumping by Chinese exporters in neighbouring markets. These call for alert and flexible policy responses so that efforts to revive Indian economy are not harvested by other economies.

The second important leg of the short-term strategy is to boost investments. Most projections suggest that consumption spending may remain somewhat subdued this year. For overall growth, stepping up of the investment spending is critical. This could include a variety of measures, from short-term tax breaks for big-tag greenfield investments to administrative focus on clearing last mile hurdles for large projects. One quick-fire way continues to be a counter-cyclical push to investment by the government itself. The new government will need to continue with the fiscal stimuli announced in December and January. Although that could imply further widening of fiscal deficit, it may be inevitable in the short-term. Government spending could be focused on infrastructure projects, including rural infrastructure that will augment long-term competitiveness of our economy. As growth revives, the government could revert to the path of fiscal discipline.

Besides financing, large projects sometimes get stuck into issues of land acquisition and other clearances. The government could explore creating a comprehensive and fair compensation policy for land acquisition and a standard operating process on clearance issues with time bound resolutions, to avoid undue delays.

Social infrastructure is as much, if not more, important as physical infrastructure for ensuring sustainable growth. Besides committing more financial resources to social infrastructure such as health and education, the government may also look at governance issues to improve the effectiveness of delivery of its services in these areas. Also, the private sector may be encouraged to partner in certain areas; for example, technical education.

The development agenda on the government’s priority could include delivery of minimum nutrition to children, effective implementation of the goal of universal primary education, improving the quality and reach of healthcare, making water and electricity available to all, improving sanitation and drainage systems, and putting in place economic safety nets.

Additionally,we need to scout for sector-level enablers that can create a big impact on investment and employment, such as the implementation of the National Mineral Policy to encourage investment in mining sector, incentives for increasing fertiliser capacities, supporting Indian companies to acquire natural resources (especially energy) abroad, creating a super-ministry for transportation that can take a holistic view of transport infrastructure and so on.