India will be fastest growing economy among large economies: Sitharaman

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said that India will be the fastest-growing economy this year and by the next year, the country will be the fastest-growing economy among the large economies.

While addressing the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in a Post Budget interactive session on “Implications of Union Budget”, the Finance Minister said, “Our economy has to grow in a multimodal approach via the Gati Shakti Project which will create 21st Century infrastructure in India.”

“The transition towards green energy is a promise that we made in COP26 and we need to have the infrastructure to support this journey,” she added.

Sitharaman further said that the Centre is building economic corridors, logistical hubs connecting raw material supply points and nearest ports. “PM Gati Shakti will guide us on building this infrastructure. In this budget, we are re-iterating what we said in our last budget,” he said.

Sitharaman also added that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about ‘Ease Of Doing Business’, “we removed 1,700 deadwood laws. We made compliances easy. It will influence everything that the next-gen does and will aspire them to do business.”

“Our emphasis on public investment in infra is done with several discussions with stakeholders,” she added while saying that the government will look at India’s economic revival post-pandemic via public funding in infrastructure and hence, a 35 per cent increase had been granted in the CAPEX during this budget.

Finance Minister appealed to the industry to join ‘team India’ and ensure that India is the fastest-growing economy and not just this year, but several years afterwards.

Responding to a question on the regulation of cryptocurrency, Sitharaman said that the Centre has a consultation process for cryptocurrency formalisation. “We will come up with clarity soon,” she added. (ANI)