India needs pro-business, not pro-crony policies: CEA

NEW DELHI:  After advocating strongly in the Economic Survey 2019-20 that India should have more pro-business policies as pro-crony ones is eroding wealth in the economy, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Krishnamurthy Subramanian said on Saturday that India has some distance to go in fully shifting from pro-crony to pro-business policies.

“Pro-crony policies help incumbents and that is something we have to stay away from in enabling the invisible hands of the market,” he said, adding it will be the pro-business policies that will realize the prime minister’s goal of making India a $5 trillion economy in next four years.

He said after the CAG’s report on telecom spectrum allocations came out in 2011, investor returns from “connected companies”, have been very low as compared to the broader indices. The survey had noted business houses, close to political parties, get undue advantages.