In a bid to remove poverty and bridge infrastructure deficit in the country, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said India still has to cover a long distanceon reforms in the country.
“Though there is no finishing line for reforms, India still has to cover a long distance so as to remove poverty and bridge infrastructure deficit. India needs to pump in huge amount of funds in sectors like health, education, rural infrastructure and irrigation,” Jaitley said, while launching of a book titled as ‘India Transformed-25 Years of Economic Reform’, edited by former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Dr Rakesh Mohan.
As far as the country’s reform process is concerned, Jaitley, however, said, “India is at much better place than any place in the world. I think India still has to cover a huge distance and the high growth rate has to be sustained over a reasonably long period of time because you still have large number of people living below the poverty line, you still have infrastructure deficit, you still need a lot of investment in health, education, in rural India and irrigation.”
The Government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has brought a slew of reforms, including demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), one is considered to be historic decision and other is known to be the biggest taxation reform since Independence. Besides, the Government brought various reforms on financial inclusion, foreign direct investment and big push to digital economy as well.
Faced with dwindling foreign exchange reserves, India opened its economy in June 1991, ushering in an era of big- bang economic reforms under the stewardship of the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh.
Jaitley further said that unquestionably, 1991 was a key defining moment as far as India is concerned. “Defining because it not only changed economic course, it changed the mindset of people,” the Finance Minister said.
India has witnessed on an average 7 per cent growth in the past 25 years, he added.
Unquestionably, India is a much better place to live in but added that still there are areas of challenges.
“India still needs large resources to enable to carry poverty alleviation steps. That large resources can only come if there is larger growth process,” Jaitley said.
Manmohan Singh, former Prime Minister of the country for 10 years, was also present at the book launch event. Besides Singh, former RBI Deputy Governor Dr Rakesh Mohan, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, billionaire and Chairman of Kotak Mahindra Bank among other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.