India on strong path of economic revival, says Thakur

Pune: India will have a strong economic revival thanks to its well-planned easing of lockdown, Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur said on Wednesday. He also defended the contentious farm sector reforms, saying the Narendra Modi government had the courage to do what others could not.

Thakur was speaking on 'Achieving $5 Trillion Economy of India: Opportunities and Challenges' in a lecture series organized by Symbiosis International University here. Year 2020 is a pandemic year, but India will look back on it as a year of "historic reforms, a year of tectonic transformation and year of opportunities in the wake of adversities," said Thakur.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightly asked the countrymen to find opportunity in the adversity and India has seen an opportunity in the wake of adversity, he said. "This year 2020 offered India an opportunity to forge a new vision of globalization, focus on the shared interest of humanity as a whole. This year has given India an opportunity to emerge as the engine of the global growth," said Thakur, speaking virtually from Jammu & Kashmir where he is BJP's in- charge for the maiden District Development Council polls.

Like every other country, India too saw its economic growth and activities fall during the coronavirus pandemic, Thakur said. "However, due to gradual and well-thought unlocking and the resumption of business activities, we are now looking at a strong economic revival and it is possible because of strong fundamentals and a slew of structural reforms," he said. The "atmanirbhar package" of Rs 21 lakh crore announced by the Modi government was roughly 19 per cent of the GDP, he said.

Talking about the new farm laws which some sections of farmers are opposing, Thakur said people had been talking about bringing changes in the sector but could not do it.

"We had the courage to bring in agriculture reforms, which are going to help both farmers and labourers," he said.

Global funds and investors are looking at India as an investment destination and are "bullish about India's growth story," Thakur said.

Last week Invest India (the government's investment facilitation agency) won the investment promotion award at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), he said. About the DDC elections in J&K, Thakur said the BJP had done extremely well by winning close to 75 seats and emerging as the single largest party. "Most of the students do not know what kind of conditions used to prevail before last year. It was Prime Minister Modi who abrogated the Article 370 and 35-A (of the Constitution) and people of Kashmir have benefited out of it," he said.

J&K is set to emerge as "one of the fast-growing states in coming months and years," the Union minister said.