{
  "id": 8399262,
  "title": "‘Cooperative federalism key to financing Viksit Bharat’: Finance Commission chairman NK Singh",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/19/cooperative-federalism-key-to-financing-viksit-bharat-finance",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-19T06:05:12.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Hindustan Times",
    "slug": "hindustan-times",
    "url": "https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/cooperative-federalism-key-to-financing-viksit-bharat-finance-commission-chairman-nk-singh-101789795647902.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh emphasized the importance of cooperative federalism in financing India's journey towards Viksit Bharat. Singh, who is also the president and life trustee of the Institute of Economic Growth, delivered a keynote address at a conference of state finance ministers and finance secretaries. He stressed the need for higher savings, stronger private investments, and prudent state finances to support the financing strategy. Singh advocated for a new center-state economic compact to implement this strategy and urged states to engage in healthy competition to achieve development goals. The Finance Commission's work aims to enhance \"cooperative federalism\" and move towards \"competitive federalism,\" where states can compete meaningfully on development parameters and share each other's experiences. Singh highlighted the need to boost domestic savings, noting that India's gross domestic savings rate is currently around 34% of GDP, far below the historical peak of 38%. He also emphasized the crucial role of private capital in achieving the Viksit Bharat goal, stating that public finance must seek to crowd in private capital. The conference, organized by the Ministry of Finance, aims to discuss financing challenges and policy priorities for India's development journey, focusing on macroeconomic overview, financing agricultural transformation, financing the energy transition, and other key areas.",
  "summary": "Finance Commission chairman NK Singh emphasized the importance of cooperative federalism in achieving the goal of a developed India, or Viksit Bharat. He advocated for a new economic compact between the Centre and states, encouraging states to compete on development goals while sharing policy experiences.\n\nThe idea of decentralization and giving more autonomy to local bodies was also discussed. K. Allaudin, Chairman of the Tamil Nadu government-constituted Seventh State Finance Commission, stated that local bodies need authority, fiscal autonomy, and resources to exercise meaningful autonomy. According to Allaudin, local governments currently depend substantially on transfers from the Union and State governments.\n\nThe collection of property tax in India is significantly lower than in OECD countries, at 0.2% of GDP compared to 1.1% in OECD countries. Gagandeep Singh Bedi, Secretary of the Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department, suggested that Indians may need to pay more property tax to better develop cities and villages.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}