India need to achieve 9-10% annual growth rate: Jaitley

 The Dollar Business Bureau The Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the Indian economy will have to reach an annual growth rate of 9-10% to ensure better infrastructure development and in order to come in line with the expected development. Speaking at a session, ‘Indian Economy: The Way Forward’, conducted at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, the Union Finance Minister was quoted to have said that there is a need for India to reach 8% growth rate this year, grow it further and aim for 9-10 % growth rate and then continue the same pace in further years and that is what that India requires to achieve better development. While stating that the investment available within India is very modest and the Indian banks are enough capable of providing good investments, the Minister also called for investments from any source that has got the scope to provide better investment support. Stating that the government aims at ‘decentralized spending’, the Minister said that India is focused at lowering its trade deficit to 3% from 4%, over a three-year period. According to the Finance Ministry report released in February, the stalled projects in India are up to the tune of Rs 18 lakh crore (about 13% of GDP) of which an estimated 60% are in infrastructure. In accordance to that, the Finance Minister had stated earlier that the revenue collections stood affected due to low manufacturing in the last 2-3 years and they are expected to get a boost with the Make in India policy. The Minister had also said that a quick decision making & stability in policy matters, reforms in tax structure and administration, will definitely be the key elements to make the better use of huge interest among domestic and foreign investors to invest in India.  

This article was published on March 03, 2015.