India's pragmatic response to Covid ensured high growth

Davos: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said India took a very pragmatic approach in dealing with the humanitarian and economic crises triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and that has ensured moderate inflation and high growth in the country.

Speaking here at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023, the minister said India's economy has been resilient and the policy framework has been for a sustained growth with a very moderate inflation. "As the pandemic hit the world and triggered an economic as well as humanitarian crises, many countries began unleashing their purses with big stimulus packages but that led to a gold-plated rush resulting in huge inflationary pressures.

"However, India took a very pragmatic approach, while understanding that capital is very scarce, irrespective of what some experts may say," he added. Vaishnaw said the Indian government focussed on vulnerable population for financial aid, free food and free vaccines and all of that was done on digital platforms under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Those decisions have shaped the destiny of our country and put us on a path of resilient and sustainable growth. We have been able to achieve high growth and moderate inflation because of the pragmatic approach we took," he added.

"Our prime minister also ensured that fiscal policy and monetary policy moved in tandem, which many other countries couldn't do. We ensured that moderate inflation was the prime target and that too for a longer 10-year period time frame and it ensured that we returned to a high growth rate quickly," he added. He was speaking at a session on India's road to $10 trillion economy. The panellists also discussed from financial sector reforms to developing new industries, what concrete actions will drive India's economic transformation over the coming decade.