AMN / CHENNAI
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, the Centre would spend over a hundred lakh crore rupees in the next five years in the country’s infrastructure.
Delivering the Nani Palkhivala Centenary lecture here this evening, she said the target of India becoming a five trillion-dollar economy is not just abstract thinking but a practical one.
She said, the Government would do a facilitator-role for all stakeholders in achieving the target. She said proper governance would be firmly in place without exerting undue pressure on any sections. She stressed that the Modi Government is believing not in incremental growth but in transformative growth.
Ms Sitharaman said the phenomenal rise in digital transactions in the country has inspired the whole world. She said, whenever Prime Minister Modi interacts with global leaders, they ask about India’s success in operationalizing the Unified Payments Interface. She noted that a major churning is taking place in the industrial sector, aided by the great push that is being given to adopt advanced technologies.
Referring to the disinvestment in public sector undertakings, she said it is aimed at making sure that they are run as efficient enterprises. She said, the Indian economy is rules-based and not opaque. She said she wanted to make several provisions of criminalizing corporate actions in the Companies Act removed so that the sense of fear in taking decisions could be avoided.
She asserted that the NPAs in banks are coming down drastically, adding the NPA figure came down from ten lakh crore rupees to eight lakh crore rupees which is reducing further. She rejected the charges that the Central Government is not giving due respect to the country’s important institutions, adding, there is mutual respect between the Reserve Bank of India and the Union Government.