Abbormal share of logistics in GDP blocking growth, says Andhra CM YS Jagan at NITI Aayog meet

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has stressed the need to sustain the flow of healthy investments into the infrastructure sector to ensure rapid economic progress of the nation.

Addressing the NITI Aayog Governing Council session here on Saturday, the Chief Minister said the logistics share in the country’s GDP was high at 14 per cent while the corresponding figure for the USA was low at 7.5 percent. The abnormal share of logistics was hampering the country’s growth and curtailing the competitiveness of the Indian products globally, he said, outlining the need to sustain the healthy flow of investments into the logistics sector as “we have seen in the last 9 years.”

The Chief Minister also submitted a note to the Governing Council explaining the steps taken to strengthen the sectors of logistics, public health, skill development and social and economic empowerment of women in the State.

The objective of ‘Vikasit Bharat’ could be achieved by 2047 only if the share of manufacturing and services sector in the country’s GDP exceeded at least 85% as against the global average of 91.5%, he stated, adding that AP has been contributing its share towards this.

Laying emphasis on port-based development, he said: “we are establishing four greenfield ports and 10 fishing harbours, besides developing the Orvakal Airport in Kurnool and an international airport in Visakhapatnam through PPP mode.”

Emphasising the necessity of creating a conducive business environment and attracting more investments besides promoting new technologies to achieve higher agricultural productivity and food self-sufficiency, he pointed out that the share of investments in manufacturing and services sectors should be increased.

AP stood first in the country in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) consecutively for the past three years, he mentioned, stating that it had also repealed obsolete legal provisions to reduce the compliance burden. As a result, the Global Investors Summit 2023 at Visakhapatnam had received an investment commitment of Rs. 13 lakh crore with an employment potential of about 6 lakh, he said. The country needed to focus on public health, nutrition and healthcare management while taking steps to identify diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in early stages to avoid major health issues later.

“To strengthen the public health system, we have launched Family Doctor Programme and stablished 10,592 village and ward clinics with mid-level healthcare providers, ANMs and ASHA workers manning them besides equipping them with 105 types of essential drugs and labs to conduct 14 types of diagnostics. As many as 48,639 new doctors have been recruited to augment healthcare facility right from village clinics to teaching hospitals which are also equipped with enough number of doctors, nurses and paramedics,” he said.

Taking advantage of the country’s large proportion of working-age group unlike Germany which is facing labour problems and scarcity of skilled personnel, we should introduce new topics and dynamic subjects as school curriculum to move with the pace of changes witnessed due to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Large Language Models,” he said.

Elaborating on the steps taken to empower women socially and financially, Jagan said the State Government had been arranging interest-free bank loans to the self-help groups of women.The Centre and all state governments should recognise the need to adopt a progressive approach of handholding the women.

All states should work together and stand united to achieve progress as the welfare of the country and states are interlinked, he said.