Fix Land Acquisition, Cut Red Tape to Power India’s Industrial Rise: Gita Gopinath

IMF’s former Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath has said India must address deep-rooted structural challenges such as complex land acquisition and excessive bureaucracy to emerge as a major industrial and supply-chain hub. Speaking at the Economic Times’ India Economic Conclave, she noted that while India has made strong progress in physical and digital infrastructure, these gains alone are not enough to ensure global competitiveness.

Gopinath identified land acquisition as a key bottleneck, pointing to unclear land titles and slow processes that delay industrial expansion and constrain growth. She said that such issues limit how quickly factories and industrial clusters can be built. Highlighting examples of reform, she noted that states like Andhra Pradesh have adopted innovative policies to speed up land acquisition, and suggested that similar approaches should be replicated nationwide.

She also stressed the need for further deregulation, adding that despite improvements, India remains a difficult place to do business due to heavy regulation, bureaucracy, and persistent corruption. Her remarks come amid a Niti Aayog report noting India’s limited success in benefiting from the ‘China Plus One’ strategy, with countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia gaining more due to simpler tax regimes, lower tariffs, cheaper labour, and proactive trade agreements.

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