New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday laid emphasis on low-cost manufacturing and felt the strength of the economy lies in its huge human resource, size of the domestic market and the fact that it is not entirely export dependent.
According to finance minister Arun Jaitley, the Prime Minister has also laid emphasis on small and medium enterprises, and on using NREGA funds as a possible tool for skill development and using the Mudra Bank for supporting the unorganised sector. “Transparency in governance will lead to early decisions,” the minister added during a press briefing here on Tuesday.
“What we are looking at is different steps to strengthen the Indian economy,” Mr Jaitley said. These steps, he explained, will range from investment in infrastructure, irrigation, easing doing business, attracting more global investment, generating private sector investment in India.
Responding to industry’s demand for a rate cut, finance minister Arun Jaitley said this was the domain of the Reserve Bank, which set monetary policy. While participants felt a large number of tax matters had been resolved, the remaining reforms, including passage of the GST Bill, must be carried out, the minister said. “They expressed hope that GST, that was held up because of parliamentary obstruction, will move forward,” he said.
RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group head Cyrus P. Mistry, Aditya Birla Group head Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel and ITC chairman Yogi Deveshwar were among the industry leaders who attended the meeting. RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar and SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya and economists like Subir Gokaran and chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian as well as Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagriya were also present.
