Day One focused on macroeconomic priorities, savings, investment and fiscal resilience; Day Two focused on agricultural transformation, energy transition and included short sessions on role of technology, banking and aspects of measuring GSDP

The Conference on “Financing India’s Journey towards Viksit Bharat” with Finance Ministers and Finance Secretaries of States and Union Territories with Legislature, experts from academia, industry, banking and policymaking, concluded in New Delhi, today. The conference witnessed series of deliberations across two days on India’s financing requirements and pathways for sustained, inclusive and broad-based growth.

The two-day conference was attended by the Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs and had the Chief Ministers of Assam, Delhi, Goa, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Keralam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland; Deputy Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha; and Finance Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, UP, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal, besides senior officers of States and Ministry of Finance in attendance.

DAY ONE

On day one, Smt. Anuradha Thakur, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) Ministry of Finance, welcomed the participants and set out the context in the inaugural session.

Smt. Thakur highlighted that this first-of-its-kind Conference adopts a longer-term and broader canvas, bringing together issues related to public & private finance, assembling experts from academia, industry, banking and policymaking States shared their perspectives and underscored that the journey towards Viksit Bharat rests on deep complementarities and multi-tiered partnership between the Union & the States. She mentioned that macroeconomic stability and fiscal prudence have received global recognition, including four sovereign rating upgrades by major international rating agencies over the past 16–17 months, with JCR recently upgrading India by one notch from BBB+ to A-.

The DEA Secretary emphasised that the scale of transformation to attain Viksit Bharat could not be met by Government Budgets alone. Private-sector financing, innovative financing mechanisms and stronger cooperation across levels of government will play a critical role.

She informed the gathering that working groups, with participation from States, will take forward the thematic deliberations and identify sectoral financing requirements and actionable recommendations.

Shri Sudhir Shrivastava, former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, made a presentation on States’ Financing Perspective in the inaugural session.

In his Keynote Address, Shri N.K. Singh, President and Life Trustee, Institute of Economic Growth, and Chairman, 15^th Finance Commission (XVFC), highlighted India’s strong macroeconomic foundation, and noted the 7.8 per cent GDP growth in Q1 of FY 2026–27 and the recent upgrade by Japan Credit Rating Agency from BBB+ to A-.

He emphasised that India’s gross domestic savings rate, currently around 34 per cent of GDP, needs to rise towards 38–40 per cent to sustain the 7–8 per cent growth required for Viksit Bharat. On fiscal sustainability, Shri Singh advocated State-wise debt sustainability assessments, and stressed greater fiscal transparency, including accounting for off-budget borrowings, guarantees, arrears and borrowings through State-owned entities. On revenue mobilisation, he observed that the larger opportunity lies in leveraging information rather than merely increasing tax rates. AI and machine learning, combined with existing tax databases, can help identify compliance gaps, broaden the effective tax base and improve revenue mobilisation. Shri Singh stressed the need to move from public finance to private capital, with public resources playing a catalytic role. He also emphasised predictable rules, enforceable contracts, faster dispute resolution and stronger investment treaties to facilitate domestic and foreign investment. On factor-market reforms, Shri Singh identified capital, labour and land as critical areas, touched upon our relatively higher cost of capital, emphasised labour productivity through skilling, apprenticeships and stronger university-industry linkages, and urged States to improve land-use efficiency, streamline approvals and strengthen digital land records.

THEMATIC SESSIONS

The first thematic session, “Macroeconomic Overview,” was moderated by Shri Ajay Seth, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India. Dr. Sajjid Z. Chinoy, Managing Director and Chief India Economist, J.P. Morgan, and Part-time Member, Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PM-EAC), delivered the keynote address in this thematic session.

The panel deliberated on three themes: “Enhancing Savings and Investment Rates for Viksit Bharat 2047,” presented by Dr. Samiran Chakraborty, Chief Economist, India, Citibank; “Fiscal Golden Rule at the State Level, Facilitated by Innovative Finance,” addressed by Prof. Ashima Goyal, Professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai; and “Strengthening Public Finances to Improve Fiscal Resilience and Mobilising Resources,” discussed by Prof. N. R. Bhanumurthy, Director, Madras School of Economics.

A special session featured Shri Uday Kotak, Founder and Non-Executive Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank.

DAY TWO

The second day commenced with as session on “Financing Agriculture Sector Transformation,” moderated by Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi, former Secretary, Department of Agriculture. The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Harsh Kumar Bhanwala, Public Interest Director and Chairman of MCX.

The panel examined “Market Access and Reliable Agricultural Financing,” with Shri Anil Kumar SG, Founder and Non-Executive Chairman, Samunnati; “Issues in Post-Harvest Marketing, Logistic Support, Infrastructure and Food Processing,” with Dr. Shoumitro Chatterjee, Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University, USA; and “Experience of IFAD on Financial Instruments that Could Be Scaled Up or Need to Be Explored in the Context of Agriculture Transformation,” with Dr. Marc De Sousa Shield, Country Director and Head, South Asia Hub, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The third thematic session, “Financing the Energy Transition,” was moderated by Shri Alok Kumar, former Secretary, Ministry of Power. Shri Tarun Kapoor, Advisor to the Prime Minister, delivered the keynote address for this session.

The panelists made presentations on “Financing Renewable Energy and Transmission Assets,” with Mr. Harsh Shah, Managing Director, IndiGrid; “Financing of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), Pumped Storage Projects (PSP) and Other Energy Storage Solutions,” with Dr. Praveer Sinha, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Tata Power; and “Financing Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) and Designing a Carbon Credits Framework to Ensure Primacy for the Country’s NDC Targets,” with Mr. Rahul Kitchlu, Practice Manager and Head of Energy and Mining Sectors, South Asia Region, The World Bank.

All the sessions included experience-sharing by State Governments, providing an opportunity to exchange perspectives on financing priorities and challenges.

SPECIAL SESSIONS

Two special-session presentations addressed emerging dimensions of India’s development journey. Dr. Saurabh Garg, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), presented “Measuring India’s Viksit Bharat Journey: A Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) Perspective”; and Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), spoke on “Role of New-Age Technology in India’s Journey Towards Viksit Bharat.”

CONCLUDING SESSION

In his remarks during the concluding session, Dr. V. Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Adviser, Government of India, observed that the Conference had provided a valuable opportunity for the Union and States to move beyond discussions on resource generation and sharing, and deliberate collectively on financing India’s development over the next two decades. He noted that the quality of discussions and the openness with which States shared their perspectives had strongly established the case for holding the Conference annually. He emphasised that while India’s savings base was substantial and would need to grow further, significantly greater participation by private capital would be essential to mobilise the investment required for Viksit Bharat.

He outlined three priorities for States: creating an enabling environment for private investment through the availability of land, power and logistics, supported by effective single-window clearances; improving the quality of investment through robust project-preparation pipelines and credible project reports to facilitate access to domestic and multilateral finance, alongside directing credit towards underserved districts with growth potential; and strengthening States’ own capital expenditure despite fiscal constraints. In this context, he referred to Shri Sudhir Shrivastava’s proposal to raise capital outlay from approximately 2.4 per cent to 3 per cent of GSDP by 2031-32.

Emphasising that “Viksit Bharat depends on Viksit Rajya,” Dr. Nageswaran called for the practices shared by States, ongoing deregulation efforts and expert recommendations to be taken forward and translated into partnerships with clear responsibilities and timelines. He concluded by underscoring the dual imperative before India: sustaining the long-term development journey towards 2047 while accelerating resource mobilisation over the next five years, when global financing opportunities remain available.

Shri Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, Chairman, State Bank of India, addressed the topic of “Sources of Finance from Banking Sector”, in the concluding session of the two-day conference.