Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday asserted that his government has been able to keep a lid on price pressure and inflation remained below 5% between 2014 and 2020, seeking to blunt the Opposition’s criticism that the current regime has failed to tame price rise.
Despite elevated risks to supply chains from the pandemic, Modi stressed, India’s average retail inflation between April and December this fiscal stood at just 5.2% (with food inflation under 3%), while it’s hovering around 7% even in the advanced economies. This is also in stark contrast with the double-digit inflation that India witnessed in the last five years of the UPA government, he added.
Replying to the motion of thanks to the President’s speech in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister said highlighted the slew of initiatives–from Jan Dhan accounts and Mudra loans to guaranteed collateral-free loans for small and medium businesses and Make in India–to drive home the point that his government is not shy of taking bold actions.
The Budget for FY23 has focussed on promoting self-reliance in defence manufacturing, he said, and the government intends to further raise purchases from Indian firms. It has stipulated that a quarter of the R&D budget of the defence ministry will be set aside for private players, including start-ups and academia. Similarly, over two-thirds of the capital outlay for defence will be earmarked for the domestic industry in FY23.
Modi criticised some Opposition leaders for passing derogatory remarks against industrialists, as he acknowledged the valuable contributions that these wealth creators make towards nation-building. He also flayed the Congress for opposing critical schemes of the government—from Make in India to Fit India—for the sake of opposing it.
“The world has taken note of India’s economic strides and that, too, in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic,” he said.
