"Engines Of Growth": Nirmala Sitharaman On Big Focus On Eastern States

They (Eastern) states should be engines of growth for the country, underlined Nirmala Sitharaman in an exclusive interview to NDTV's Editor-In-Chief Sanjay Pugalia, adding that the centre will continue to focus on the region. 

"We will continue to focus on northeast. In our eastern states - Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand - manpower is good. The people from Jharkhand and Bihar work in the whole country. We now need to focus on these states. The minerals, deposits that they have, they should help their states also. The states should be engines of growth for the whole country. We have been doing all this but we will do more," the Finance Minister told NDTV.

In her interim Budget speech on Thursday, Nirmala Sitharaman stressed that utmost attention will be paid to the eastern region including states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Bengal to make them growth engines as part of goal to make India a developed country by 2047.

Commentators have pointed out that the BJP has peaked in the north and the special focus on eastern region signals the party's intent on winning over the people of the region ahead of the general elections.