In planning ahead, Kerala has lessons to learn from the ongoing economic crisis in Sri Lanka, a nation which has many geographical and cultural similarities with the south Indian State, Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal has said.
Mr. Balagopal was speaking on 'Budgeting with a long-term perspective' at a one-day seminar on the Economic Review 2021 and Kerala Budget 2022-23 organised by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), Confederation of Indian Industry, University of Kerala and Cochin University of Science and Technology.
The Lankan crisis pointed to a need to have a system where the development of basic infrastructure was combined with growth in production in primary sectors such as agriculture and industry. The food scarcity in Sri Lanka may be the outcome of neglecting agriculture over a long period, Mr. Balagopal said.
