AFP, New Delhi :
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hailed a “new chapter for India” as his re-elected government unveiled what he called a “green” budget aimed at reviving growth and creating a $5-trillion economy.
India was recently leap-frogged by China as the world’s fastest-growing major country, with unemployment in Asia’s third-biggest economy at its highest since the 1970s.
In the first budget since Modi won a second term by a landslide in May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she wanted to boost foreign direct investment (FDI) and infrastructure spending.
“The government will examine suggestions of further opening up FDI in aviation, media, and, insurance sectors in consultation with stakeholders,” said Sitharaman.
The FM also ditched the traditional British-style budget briefcase in favour of a cloth ledger, in what chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said symbolised India’s “departure from the slavery of Western thought”.
Sitharaman, 59, also said India’s public sector banks would be injected with $10.2 billion to tackle bad loans.
A sudden collapse of India’s shadow banking sector in 2018 and bad loans had resulted in a liquidity crunch in Asia’s third-largest economy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday hailed a “new chapter for India” as his re-elected government unveiled what he called a “green” budget aimed at reviving growth and creating a $5-trillion economy.
India was recently leap-frogged by China as the world’s fastest-growing major country, with unemployment in Asia’s third-biggest economy at its highest since the 1970s.
In the first budget since Modi won a second term by a landslide in May, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said she wanted to boost foreign direct investment (FDI) and infrastructure spending.
“The government will examine suggestions of further opening up FDI in aviation, media, and, insurance sectors in consultation with stakeholders,” said Sitharaman.
The FM also ditched the traditional British-style budget briefcase in favour of a cloth ledger, in what chief economic advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said symbolised India’s “departure from the slavery of Western thought”.
Sitharaman, 59, also said India’s public sector banks would be injected with $10.2 billion to tackle bad loans.
A sudden collapse of India’s shadow banking sector in 2018 and bad loans had resulted in a liquidity crunch in Asia’s third-largest economy.
