Nirmala Sitharaman to meet Chief Ministers, State Finance Ministers; Discuss improvement focused business environment.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet all chief ministers and state finance ministers on Monday to discuss ways to create a reform-focused business environment and facilitate investments to help boost growth.
The Finance Ministry said in a tweet that in the virtual meeting to be held on November 15, besides Ministers of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Karad, Secretaries of the Ministries of the Government of India, Chief Secretaries and Finance Secretaries of the states will attend.
“Discussions to focus on creating an enabling ecosystem for promoting growth, reforms, enhancing investments and creating a reform-focused business environment, besides proactively facilitating investments,” the ministry tweeted.
The meeting comes in the backdrop of strong economic recovery after two COVID waves, and push by the central government to increase capital expenditure. The Center believes that there is room to capitalize on the positive sentiment of the private sector with low non-performing assets and rising demand among banks willing to lend more.
Union Finance Secretary TV Somanathan had said last week that the focus of this dialogue will be on state level issues, opportunities and challenges, which will enable us to go on a higher path of investment and growth.
“There is capital expenditure on the part of the government, and there is positive sentiment on the part of the private sector, although perhaps not fully translated into real investment at large. Capital market activity indicates that a lot of investment is on the cards, Somanathan said.
After the slowdown in economic growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first quarter of the current financial year has witnessed a pick-up in economic activity. The Indian economy declined by 7.3 per cent in the last fiscal after a growth of 4 per cent in 2019-20.
The economy grew at a rate of 20.1 per cent in the April-June quarter of the current financial year. In addition, the first four months of FY 2021-22 have seen foreign direct investment (FDI) of USD 64 billion.
The IMF and the World Bank have pegged India’s GDP growth at 9.5 per cent and 8.3 per cent respectively, projecting India as one of the fastest growing economies.
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