CEA Anantha Nageswaran: Ensure employee physical, mental health well-being

If India has to reap the demographic dividend, Indians should not only be physically healthy, but also be mentally healthy, says V. Anantha Nageswaran.
| Photo Credit: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran on Thursday sought to draw attention to the mental health crisis among India’s youth and called for collective action to ensure that not only does the country create jobs and address skill gaps for the young, but also ensure their physical as well as mental well-being.

While listing out some of the priority areas in the economy that need attention, such as generating productive employment, tapping the full potential of the agricultural sector, enhancing manufacturing and micro, small and medium enterprises, Mr. Nageswaran said: “There is on thing that I have not included here.”

“The focus should also be on the mental health of India’s demographic dividend, the prevalence of massive screen time, sedentary habits and ultra-processed food consumption is making a whole generation anxious, depressed and prone to suicidal thoughts,” the Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) said at a session on ‘Sustaining High Growth: Drivers and the Unfinished Agenda’ hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

“We need to do this and it is not just a government responsibility, but the responsibility of society and the private sector as well. If India has to reap the demographic dividend, Indians should not only be physically healthy, but also be mentally healthy,” the CEA underlined.

Deregulation, energy security, balanced rural-urban development and making the ‘Made in India’ label synonymous with high quality through innovations, research and development and quality consciousness, were some of the other essentials Mr. Nageswaran prescribed for the economy.

Growth slowdown

Referring to the slide in the GDP growth to a seven-quarter low of 5.4% in the July-September quarter, Mr. Nageswaran, who had earlier termed the slump as a ‘one-off’ blip, said there could have been a number of factors at work and the government is not “necessarily ruling them out”.

“It is not that we think that the second quarter slowdown is purely a data artefact, and as more data comes in, it will automatically be upgraded. Numbers could be revised higher, or, for that matter, it could be a simple seasonal factor because of rains or some religious observance in September, etc.” he said.

“It could also be something more fundamental as the ability of the State to spend what is budgeted and also what is going on post-COVID in the private sector, in terms of hiring and compensation, etc, which may also have a longer term bearing on urban household income, consumption and savings patterns compared to what we had before COVID,” the CEA reasoned.

These factors could be “very temporary” or “mundane” or mean “something more serious”, he averred. “But nonetheless, I think the fact remains that we will be on track to achieve the kind of growth numbers that we had penciled in the Economic Survey in July, somewhere between 6.5% and 7% for the whole financial year,” Mr. Nageswaran concluded.