When the
NDA govt
swept into office in 2014, there was considerable pressure to release a
White Paper
on the
state of the economy
and
track record
of
UPA
. But the govt resisted the demand, the restraint prompted by concern that an official document saying the state of the economy was precarious, as symbolised by public sector banks groaning under the burden of
bad loans
, would deepen international pessimism.
Many were unhappy over what they saw as
Congress
being let off the hook. Congress, not surprisingly, denied that it had left the economy in a poor shape.
The long-pending demand may finally be met by a decision, announced by finance minister
Nirmala Sitharaman
, to come out with a White Paper on “mismanagement of the economy” prior to 2014. She didn’t specify any timeline for the release of the White Paper, but it is likely to be out before the announcement of the Lok Sabha poll schedule.
“The crisis of those years has been overcome and the economy put firmly on a high sustainable growth path with all-round development. It is now appropriate to look at where we were till 2014 and where we are now, only for the purposes of drawing lessons from the mismanagement of those years,” Sitharaman said in her Interim Budget speech on Thursday.
The NDA govt undertook a series of reforms to repair the health of banks, nurse the economy back to health and regain investor confidence. In the past ten years, efforts have been made to clean up the budget and scrap the practice of below the line subsidies to show a lower deficit. The Centre has also stepped up capital spending and expenditure on infrastructure compared to the UPA years to boost growth and shown its commitment to fiscal consolidation.
From being termed one of the ‘fragile five’ economies, India has emerged as one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. The health of the banking sector is robust and credit growth has increased while there has been widespread improvement in infrastructure across the country. Use of technology has helped spread benefits to a large section of the population and 24.5 crore people have been lifted out of multidimensional poverty.
Against the backdrop of slowing global growth, India is expected to grow more than 7% in the next few years and aspires to be a $7 trillion economy by 2030.
“The exemplary track record of governance, development and performance, effective delivery and ‘jan kalyan’ has given the govt trust, confidence and people’s blessings to realise, whatever it takes, the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’ with good intentions, true dedication and hard work in the coming years,” the FM added.
English (US) ·