Reforms should be taken to next level

KOCHI: The reform policies successfully endorsed by the country during the past 20 years have to be intensified further to enhance the country’s social security, said K M Chandrasekhar, former Cabinet Secretary.He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Twenty Years of India’s Liberalisation’, organised by the Banglore-based Xavier Institute of Management & Entrepreneurship, in Kochi on Saturday.Speaking on the liberalisation policy in India, which had been conceptualised at the dawn of the 1990s, he said the new system had transformed the country into a vibrant economy and raised the nation’s GDP.“The concept was put into place in 1991, when Dr Manmohan Singh was the Finance Minister. Manmohan Singh could be remembered as the star of change after hundred years,” he opined.“But it is high time that these reforms were taken to the next level to increase the country’s wealth. It is the responsibility of our leaders to ensure the overall development of the society. And for this, another wave of change in our fiscal and financial policies is essential, he said.Pointing out that the resilience of the rural economy was the reason India survived the economic recession of 2008-09, Chandrasekhar said that the leadership needs to take this into consideration and work towards redistribution of wealth among the masses.