India on the path towards economic recovery, says DEA secretary

Economic Affairs secretary Ajay Seth said that India has got on the path of economic recovery aided by various government reforms in the last seven years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Despite the pandemic, the government continued with the reform process and many strategic reforms were launched even during Covid-19. While speaking at a virtual event organised by industry body Ficci on Monday, he said the past 18 months was not only about managing the impact of the pandemic, starting from a health crises spilling over to the real economy but also the financial sector.

The government’s focus has been on an inclusive development, he said while adding that it has launched various schemes that are targeted to support persons, entities with weak economic capacities, not only in the period of the pandemic, but also in the last seven years.

Gatishakti to provide seamless movement of goods

In the financial sector, reforms like the introduction of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has led to resolution of stressed assets worth Rs 2.4 lakh crore, while FDI and FPI liberalisation has bolstered the confidence of foreign investors in the Indian economy.

From the infrastructure development perspective, the secretary said the two major plans-National Infrastructure Pipeline envisaging Rs 111 lakh crore of investment, supplemented by National Monetisation Plan that is about Rs 6 lakh crore, has been announced.

He said that, this coupled with the Prime Minister’s vision of Gatishakti would lead to seamless movement of goods and services and generate employment opportunities in the entire country.

At present the spending for infrastructure is at 5-6% of the GDP, which should be doubled, he said. This is possible only through a partnership between industry and the government. Moreover, he also wanted industry to participate in the infrastructure development programme of the government.