Notwithstanding the concerns about the rising suicide deaths among the farmers in various parts of the country, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Yaga Venugopal Reddy has assured that the country would be able to preserve the present economic growth with firmness. Addressing a select gathering in London, Reddy affirmed the deaths and attributed them to factors other than debts. 

According to the RBI Governor, the suicide deaths "go beyond credit". He held several other aspects like lack of risk mitigation mechanisms against natural calamities and failures like pesticides for the crises. He said that lack of adequate skilled manpower and absence of modern infrastructure was the most critical barriers to India’s economy that grew by 9.4 per cent last year. The RBI Governor called for urgent education reforms to overcome these hindrances.

He admitted that the issue of credit to the agricultural sector is a "very important one", but emphasized that it needs to be pursued as a larger effort. According to him, although there is a need for enhancing credit to the agricultural sector, greater credit in agriculture has to be a part of a larger effort. Substantiating his view, Reddy pointed out that farmer suicides were occurring in the states where the credit is highest and where the bank credit is highest.

Nevertheless, Reddy was of the view that there is enough reason for optimism and added that financial system stability, skilled manpower, technological capabilities, demographic dividends, large and growing entrepreneurial class were the backbone for the country’s economic growth.

The RBI Governor opined that the continued speeding up in the services and the manufacturing activities is leading to early pressures on the supply of good quality skilled labor. This, he said, was despite the fact that being the world’s most populated nation and being placed it favorably in terms of manpower availability, emerging talent supply shortages have become a critical problem in the country.

The country needs substantial expansion and reforms in the education sector to reap the benefits of India’s demography dividend, the RBI Governor stressed.

Reddy said that only 10 percent of the relevant age group is getting enrolled into institutions of higher learning in the country as compared with 40 to 50 percent in most developed countries. In addition, only less than half of the Indian secondary school students pursued college education. This called for an immediate education reform, he said.
 

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