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Modi holds pre-Budget meet with industry, bankers, economists
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SME Times News Bureau | 09 Jan, 2020
Ahead of Budget 2020-21, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday met
here with around 40 economists, industry heads, experts, bankers and
entrepreneurs where he addressed them on India's target of achieving a
$5 trillion economy, according to official sources.
The
meeting discussed ways of boosting growth and job creation, apart from a
host of other issues raised by the participants, including investment
climate, credit growth and structural reforms.
The meeting, seen
as a pre-Budget discussion, is expected to lead to the incorporation of
some of the suggestions in the Finance Minister's presentation on
February 1, sources said. Modi has already met industry captains
recently to seek their suggestions.
"The Prime Minister
addressed the gathering of industry, economists, experts and
entrepreneurs on the $5 trillion dollar target and their role in helping
the economy achieve it. The meeting discussed the consumption slowdown,
investment climate , exports, credit growth, governance of PSBs (public
sector banks), asset monetisation, real estate, external commercial
borrowings, the MGNREGA rural emplyment scheme, textiles , start-ups and
cluster developmentm" among others", one source said.
Another source said some participants sought lower income taxes to boost consumption.
"The
PM took suggestions on boosting consumption and generating demand in
economy. There were some short-term and long-term suggestions as well.
The government will consider the structural reform proposals, some of
the suggestions may make it into the Budget," he said.
Modi welcomed the criticisms of the meeting participants and said it was a "free and frank" discussion, he added.
A
wide range of industry sectors were present at the Prime Minister's
meeting, including auto, apparel, education, analytics, travel, private
equity, venture capital, rating agencies, health, real estate and
domestic private banks.
All the Secretaries in the Finance
Ministry were present at the meeting, besides the Commerce Secretary,
Cabinet secretary, the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and the
Principal Advisor.
The Ministers present at the meeting were
Home Minister Amit Shah, Commerce minister Piyush Goyal, Road Transport
Minister Nitin Gadkari and Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh
Tomar.
The sources said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman could not be present at the meeting owing to party work assigned to her.
Others
present included Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar and Chief
Executive Amitabh Kant, Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council
Chairman Bibek Debroy, Punjab and Sind Bank non-executive Chairman
Charanjit Singh Sanjay Nair, and the Bandhan Bank CEO Chandra Shekhar
Ghosh.
The economists at the meeting included Arjun G.
Nagarajan, Farazana Afridi, Illa Patnaik, Laveesh Bhandari, Pranjul
Bhandari and Sachidanad Shukla, among others.
As economic growth
slips for lack of demand and consumption, global agencies and the
National Statistical Office (NSO) itself have scaled down the current
fiscal's GDP projections to an 11-year low of 5 per cent, mainly due to
poor showing by the manufacturing and construction sectors.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also lowered its growth estimate to 5 per cent.
On Thursday, the World Bank too lowered its India GDP growth projection to 5 per cent.
As
per the official advance estimates for 2019-20, manufacturing sector
output growth will decelerate to 2 per cent, down from 6.9 per cent in
the previous fiscal. Likewise, the construction sector growth is
estimated at 3.2 per cent, as against 8.7 per cent in 2018-19.
The
previous low in economic growth was recorded at 3.1 per cent in
2008-09. The dismal performance of the current fiscal was anticipated as
the gross domestic product (GDP) growth registered in the first quarter
was 5 per cent and 4.5 per cent in the subsequent one.
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Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
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Euro
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As on 12 Oct, 2024 |
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