Vice President Urges Consensus to Keep India’s Growth Inclusive

Overview

• Vice President C P Radhakrishnan, speaking Saturday at the 5th Kautilya Economic Conclave in New Delhi, said policy decisions should be decisive but built on broad consensus to ensure durability and public acceptance.
• He warned that if the gains of growth do not reach every section of society, young people may lose faith in democracy and that no other system can substitute a functioning democratic process.
• Radhakrishnan cited administrative reforms and financial‑inclusion tools as central to inclusion, naming Direct Benefit Transfer, the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, mobile) and GST as drivers of transparency and formalisation.
• He offered uptake figures to illustrate the point, saying more than 590 million Jan Dhan accounts existed as of August 2026, registered GST taxpayers rose to about 16.5 million by May 2026, and cumulative DBT transfers exceeded ₹53.4 trillion.
• Framing a long‑term goal of a 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047, he urged policymakers to stay grounded in micro and macro realities, pointing to China’s economic rise as an example of aligning policy with on‑the‑ground conditions and stressing the human stakes of inclusion for social and political stability.