This Article is From Jan 23, 2015

Lost a Lot in 10 Years, Have to Take Right Turns Now: Arun Jaitley To NDTV

Davos: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in an exclusive interview with NDTV's Vikram Chandra at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Among other panelists are Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics, Stern School of Business, New York University; Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director, ICICI Bank; Hari Bhartia, Co-Chairman and Founder Jubilant Life Sciences, India.


 Here are the highlights from the discussion:

Arun Jaitley on the growth of Indian economy, county's corruption and the new government in power.

  • The economies which are competing with us are not doing very well. If India will keep taking the right turns, we can go back to a high economic growth rate. Instead of concentrating on high growth rates, we went into debates on what is pro-poor and pro-rich.
  • With circumstances favouring us, we just have to take the right turns and not repeat mistakes of the past 10 years.
  • India has lost out to competing with China.
  • Merely glib talk is not enough, people here aren't going to judge us by what we're saying.
  • Those who are supposed to pay taxes must pay taxes. We must have a fair, reasonable and non-adversarial tax regime.
  • Opening sectors like Railways and Defence is not a small reform in a country like India.
  • We have a more liberal FDI policy that anywhere in the world.
  • This is a government which is here for the full term and we have just about started.
  • A large no of decisions are held in the government, both in states and at the Centre, because people play a game of passing the parcel.
  • The laws in our country are outdated for the modern day requirement.
  • One of the great setbacks of the last decade has been credibility of government declined.
  • Prevention of Corruption Act is a 1988 law which predates the 1991 liberalization.
  • We have to empower the civil service, empower those who have to decide on commercial considerations.
  • If we have to go back to the country's high growth rate, we'll need to make structural changes.
  • When institutions of the government became week, others took over to take decisions.
  • Indian has started to accept the economic agenda as the center stage agenda of the country. All issues like caste, religious strives
  • We should not led the centre stage agenda to be derailed. The last government let is trip.
  • We should follow the road map that we have set for ourselves.
  • We should not let this centre stage agenda to take a backseat under any circumstance.
  • Go to any educational institution in India, 60-80% are women: Arun Jaitley on gender equality.

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