New Delhi: Unfazed by projections of GDP growth slowing to an 11-year low in the current fiscal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Thursday that the fundamentals of the Indian economy are strong and it has the capacity to bounce back.
Modi, who seems to have taken charge of the efforts to revive the economy, has over the past few days conducted 12 brainstorming meetings with different stakeholders over various issues affecting the economy and to thrash out appropriate policy interventions in the upcoming Budget.
The Prime Minister met economists, private equity and venture capitalists, business leaders and agri experts Thursday at Niti Aayog, and called for focused efforts from all stakeholders to achieve the target of nearly doubling the size of the Indian economy to USD 5 trillion by 2024.
After the meeting, Modi tweeted: “Unwavering in our commitment to become a five trillion dollar economy! Today, had in-depth consultations with economists, business leaders and policy experts from various fields on diverse range of subjects. Such synergy augurs well for national progress.”
Modi has been devoting a considerable amount of time in personally overseeing the policy matrix aimed at engineering a quick turnaround of the Indian economy, which is estimated to grow at five per cent in 2019-20, significantly lower than 6.8 per cent growth rate last fiscal and the lowest pace of GDP growth for a full financial year since the global financial crisis in 2008-09.
“We must all work together and start to think like a nation,” an official press statement quoted Modi as saying at the meeting.
The Prime Minister said he was happy that the two-hour open discussion has brought to the forefront the experience of people on the ground and those working in their respective fields. This, he said, would enhance the synergy between policymakers and various stakeholders.
“The strong absorbent capacity of the Indian economy shows the strength of basic fundamentals of the Indian economy and its capacity to bounce back,” Modi said in the statement. He added that sectors like tourism, urban development, infrastructure, and agri-based industry have a great potential to taking forward the economy and for employment generation.
According to sources, the participants urged the government to focus on credit expansion, exports growth, governance of Public Sector Banks (PSBs), increasing consumption and job creation. Forty experts and economists attended the meeting.
Modi assured them that he would act on suggestions that can be implemented in the short-term and also consider long-term suggestions in due course as these require structural reforms.
In a tweet, Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar said the meeting ‘discussed a wide range of issues relating to economic growth, startups & innovation’.
The high-profile meeting was also attended by Home Minister AmitShah, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal besides Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
Bibek Debroy, chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, too was present at the meeting.
Among others, the Niti Aayog meeting was attended by NIPFP economist Ila Patnaik, former chief economic advisor Shankar Acharya, IGIDR Professor R Nagraj, KKR India CEO Sanjay Nayar, Ather Energy Co-founder and CEO Tarun Mehta, MakeMyTrip CEO Deep Kalra, Dabur India chief Mohit Malhotra, Bandhan Bank MD and CEO Chandra Shekhar Ghosh and CRISIL MD and CEO Ashu Suyash.
PTI