SBI's webinar on Indian budget evokes favourable response in Israel

Tel Aviv: A webinar organised by State Bank of India, Israel-Asia & Israel-India Chambers of Commerce and the Indian mission in Tel Aviv on Monday evening to decipher the Indian budget announced last month has evoked favourable response from business leaders in Israel. Setting the tone of the interactive webinar, India's Ambassador to Israel, Sanjeev Singla, said, "We have had a landmark budget that marks a directional change and leverages far-reaching reforms that the government is effecting to make our economy more resilient and competitive." "It's, therefore, important to apprise our Israeli business partners about our economy and the new opportunities. And that's what this webinar seeks to do," Singla added.

SBI's Chief Economic Advisor, Soumya Kanti Ghosh, in a detailed presentation on the Indian budget highlighted that the government's intent can be described as "under promising and delivering more". Ghosh in an hour-long presentation to 100 participants, including officials and Israeli businesses, emphasised that the Government of India (GOI) has used the Covid-19 pandemic to make the economy more resilient and more competitive through various reforms.

He said the government ensured that the Indian economy has had one of the sharpest V shaped rebounds among all the major global economies, the GDP growth has beaten market predictions for the second quarter and now for the third quarter it has turned positive, and provided a demand stimulus with major focus on increased government spending with special focus on infrastructure and health. Ghosh also drew attention to the fact that the IMF in its forecast for India has predicted a growth of 11.5 per cent for the next fiscal year which is perhaps among the highest in the major economies of the world.