Overview
- Arvind Panagariya said on September 17 that free trade agreements with the United States and the European Union should be India’s next major policy move to remove trade frictions.
- He argued that such deals, paired with India’s large pool of skilled and less‑skilled workers, could position the country as a base for multinationals similar to China in the 1990s and 2000s.
- Panagariya called the Goods and Services Tax the defining reform of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure, noting its constitutional complexity and the unification of indirect taxes.
- He cited outcomes that include a fall in poverty from about 22% in 2011–12 to roughly 3% today and a rise in global GDP ranking from 10th to 5th, with prospects of reaching 3rd.
- He recommended further labour and land reforms to lower factory setup costs, and he spoke in his capacity as chairman of the 16th Finance Commission and a former Niti Aayog vice chairman.