New Delhi: Eminent economist Arvind Panagariya says the key to India achieving double-digit growth rates lies in pragmatic labour reforms that facilitate the shift of the agricultural workforce to industry.

A few days back finance minister P Chidambaram had stated that 10-per cent growth was possible in the next financial year.

Addressing a CII seminar in New Delhi, the Columbia University said that achieving double-digit growth was possible through labour and education reforms and improvements in infrastructure and not merely.

Panagariya felt that merely focussing on developing the agricultural sector would not push up the GDP growth as it supported about 60 per cent of the country''s workforce while showing inadequate growth.

Labour market inflexibility, opined Panagariya, was the cause of the slowdown in the agriculture sector and required a part of the labour force being shifted from agriculture to the manufacturing sector, where the scope for earning was superior to that of agriculture.
He said contract farming should be given to those who remained in agriculture.

He also drew attention to China having achieved a high rate of economic growth through labour intensive techniques.