For decades, India’s development story was told at either the national or the level of the state. This is undergoing a slow reset. The focus is shifting to the sub-national level. Not without reason.
For example, Chandauli in eastern Uttar Pradesh, is grabbing global taste buds for the export of black rice. Similarly, Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh has grabbed national attention for using Artificial Intelligence to digitise land records and unlocking investment, credit, and growth.
These are not unrelated stories. Instead, they point to a deeper shift, wherein districts are emerging as the ground zero of India’s growth story.
An ambitious report—Export Preparedness Index 2024– released recently by Niti Aayog proposes to accelerate this process. It seeks to integrate district capability into global supply chains and thereby effect a radical reset in the composition and value of Indian exports.
This is easier said than done. Can India’s districts emerge as the new ground zero?
To answer this and more, StratNewsGlobal.Tech spoke to Pritam Banerjee, head of the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
Link to report: https://shorturl.at/akaCT
