Lagarde urges India reforms to boost growth engine

New Delhi

INDIA must make labour markets more flexible and ease land acquisition and other rules if it is to be a key engine of growth amid the fragile global recovery, said International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde.

While India's growth rate will probably overtake China's in the coming fiscal year and its labour force will swell to the world's largest by 2030, risks include internal imbalances, she said. The government still needs to reverse a decline in the number of women entering the workforce and ease small companies' access to the formal financing system, Ms Lagarde pointed out.