Quoting Niti Aayog’s 2022 report on poverty, she said 13.5 crore Indians have escaped multidimensional poverty.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said around 13.5 crore people have moved out of “multidimensional” poverty in the last five years and India continues to maintain the momentum of the fastest-growing major economy, with all sectors contributing significantly to economic activities.
Replying to a short-duration discussion in Rajya Sabha on the state of the economy, Sitharaman highlighted the various achievements of the Narendra Modi government since May 2014. “The second quarter growth was very high, it is the highest in the world. We continuously maintain that momentum of being the fastest-growing economy,” she said.
Quoting Niti Aayog’s 2022 report on poverty, she said 13.5 crore Indians have escaped multidimensional poverty.
Comparing the growth of the Indian economy with other countries, the minister said, “During the same quarter (July-September 2023), the world’s third and fourth largest economies have contracted – Germany contracted 0.4% and Japan contracted by 2.1%. Emerging economies, which are largely the engine of growth for the world, Vietnam grew by 5.33%, Malaysia by 3.3% and Thailand by just about 1.5%,” she said.
“…For India to have reached 7.6% in the second quarter, it’s a very significant number. Over the last eight years, India has become the fifth largest economy from being the tenth largest in 2015. The activities are all across the economy, it’s not just one sector that is doing well. The service sector and the software services are doing very well. All sectors are significantly doing well. Because of the Make in India programme and also because of the PM’s production-linked incentive scheme, the manufacturing sector is also significantly contributing to the economy. The manufacturing sector has registered the highest growth of 13.9% in the second quarter of this year,” Sitharaman said.
She said the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) has been in expansionary territory for more than 29 consecutive months, which indicates sustained growth of manufacturing. “If you look at the major economies like the US, Australia, Eurozone, Brazil, China, South Korea they have seen a contractionary manufacturing terrain,” the minister said.
“As per the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) report, Made in India products are increasingly being seen in the American supermarket. While US goods imports from China have declined by 10%, those imported from India have risen by 40% from 2018 to 2022… The focus has been on infrastructure building and our schemes in this respect have also helped states spend much more on building capital assets,” she said.
The minister further informed the House that direct tax collection grew by 21.82% this year till November 9 and monthly GST collections stabilised at Rs 1.6 lakh crore in a sign of economic growth. Dismissing assertions on the employment front, Sitharaman said the unemployment rate has declined to 10% from 17.8% in 2017-18.
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CREDIT: The Indian Express
