Modi: Reforms should be inclusive, broad-based

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s image has become “positive” and added that India is also raising various issues including “climate justice” on behalf of poorer nations.

“Reforms are not the end, they are just a small path on the long road”.

“What is the aim of reform? Reforms are a marathon and not a sprint”, Modi said in his inaugural address at the Delhi Economics Conclave (DEC).

He underscored the point that the Indian economy is doing better on nearly every major economic indicator despite uncertainties prevailing in the global economy. “GDP growth is up, inflation is down; foreign investment is up, current account deficit (CAD) is down; fiscal deficit is down, rupee is stable”, he said.

However, he called for more clarity on the objectives of the reforms agenda. Is it just to increase rate of GDP growth? “We must reform to transform”. Secondly, reforms for whom? Reform is that which helps all citizens, and especially the poor, achieve a better life.

The industry body said it has been representing to the government over the years that assessing officers are issuing assessment orders confirming tax demands without a fair and judicious analysis of the merits of the issue and overlooking judicial precedents merely to achieve the ever elusive revenue targets prescribed for them by the government.

This is the first time that the event has been inaugurated by Prime Minister since the conclave started in 2010. “For me, JAM (Jan-Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) Vision is just about achieving maximum”, said Modi, and added that India’s GDP has grown and inflation come down in the recent times.

The Reserve Bank of India governor, economists and analysts have all expressed misgivings about the new methodology which has suddenly turned India into the fastest growing economy in the world – a macro-economic fact that is at odds with the slow pace of industrial growth, weak farm sector performance, declining growth in trade figures, and tepid corporate earnings – but that doesn’t appear to have fazed the Prime Minister.

He also said the government’s efforts to bring back black money stashed overseas have yielded as much as Rs 10,500 crore.

Even as he applauded the intentions of the “poverty alleviating industry”, the prime minister said “empowering the poor was far more effective” than empowering the poverty alleviating industry.

“Accounts opened under Jan-Dhan yojana have a total balance of nearly Rs.26,000 crore today”.

Under the MUDRA scheme, he said that in this “most employment intensive sector”, banks have provided more than six million loans of Rs 38,000 crore or $6 billion to the small business units so far.