Challenges to Indian economy mainly external: Arun Jaitley
Mumbai, Aug 27 : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday said the challenges to Indian economy were mainly from external factors such as rising oil prices and the US-China trade war, but India's macroeconomic fundamentals were strong enough to overcome those challenges.
Predicting higher growth rate than the projected 7.5 per cent for this year, he expressed confidence that India would continue to grow at a "high trajectory growth rate" over the next several years and would overtake the United Kingdom next year to become the fifth largest economy in the world.
"Even this year, our growth rate is going to be somewhat higher than what conventionalists are projecting," he said while addressing the Annual General Meeting of Indian Banks' Association via teleconferencing.
Making his first public address after over a three-month gap due to his kidney transplant surgery, Jaitley said it seemed to be an optimistic picture that India was continuing its run as a fast growing economy in the world.
"Our macroeconomic fundamentals have been reasonably sound, and if at all any gets impacted, it's not going to be on account of any internal factors. The management of the economy has reasonably disciplined itself in decision-making as far as our internal factors are concerned," Jaitley said.
"Our challenges are mainly external -- the unpredictability and volatility of the oil prices, which is on account of either created shortages or some geopolitical issues. And I hope that these challenges will not go on indefinitely. They have to resolve themselves - that's how the world moves," he said.
"Coupled with this is the challenge of trade wars. Though we are not an active participant in this, but the impact and footprint of that can be seen in India, particularly when there is a tendency of some large economies to either devalue or undervalue their currency," the minister said.
However, Jaitley said it was incumbent on the government to ensure that India's domestic parameters were strong so that the economy had the resilience to face the challenge of those external factors.
"High growth rate, fiscal prudence, a lot of economic activity in the domestic market, and a series of reforms which have taken place over the last few years - they have certainly helped the economy"."
The minister, however, acknowledged the banking crisis as a key domestic challenge and said the government had learnt lessons from it and was now putting systems in place in order to strengthen the institution.
"One lesson that I have learnt is that when we desire to have a high growth rate, it must be accompanied by strong macroeconomic fundamentals. If we start sacrificing our macroeconomic fundamentals in order to temporarily push up the growth, then we are hurting ourselves elsewhere and that is bound to strike back the economy at some point of time," Jaitley said.
Referring to the indiscriminate lending during the previous UPA regime, he said this was exactly what happened around a decade ago."
"Indiscriminate lending to chase growth at the cost of macroeconomic fundamentals was a policy mistake... And the result of this has been that we ended up creating surplus capacities... We ended up funding projects which were unable to service the kind of debt that they had created -- and needless to say some had indulged in fraudulent practices," Jaitley said.
And once that error was committed, the next error was the evergreening of loans and eventually, the banks struggled to find methodologies to make recoveries, he said.
However, Jaitley seemed positive about the future of the Indian economy which has now become the sixth largest in the world overtaking France last month."
"Barring China which grows at 6.5 per cent, we are the only ones growing at 7.5 per cent plus. The other four in the top six are much bigger economies but growing at a relatively smaller rate. We may overtake one of them next year itself because the gap is very narrow. "
"And over the next few years we have to target those who are number four and three and overtake them. With kind of investments and economic activity taking place in India... I am reasonably optimistic that over the next several years we are going to continue to grow at a high trajectory growth rate," he said.
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Bond between Assamese Muslims, Hindus very strong: Author Wasbir Hussain
Guwahati (PTI): The bond between Assamese Hindus and Assamese Muslims is very strong and no one can easily break the traditional friendship between the two communities, Wasbir Hussain, author and executive director of Centre for Development and Peace Studies, has said.
Addressing the fourth anniversary celebrations of the Assamese Syed Welfare Trust, an organisation representing the Assamese Syeds, Hussain on Sunday urged Gauhati University to start a chair in the name of Azan Pir, a 17th-century Muslim reformer and Sufi saint, on the subject of 'inter-faith harmony or harmony of communities'.
Assamese Syeds are one of the five Muslim groups officially recognised by the Assam government as indigenous communities of the state.
Hussain said except religion, there is no difference between Assamese Hindus and Assamese Muslims. Their language is the same, culture is the same, food habits are the same and they dress the same way, he said.
"I strongly believe that no one can easily break the traditional bond of friendship between Assamese Hindus and Assamese Muslims," he said.
Hussain, who is also the editor-in-chief of Guwahati-based Northeast Live, spoke about how the indigenous Muslims of Assam follow cultural Islam compared to religious Islam and live peacefully with the larger Hindu population of the state.
He complimented Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for taking initiatives for the protection of the heritage of the Assamese Muslim community and its overall growth.
Gauhati University Vice Chancellor Nani Gopal Mahanta, the chief guest of the event, said people or communities can have multiple identities that transcend religion.
He cited the example of Assamese Muslims and Syeds who are descendants of Sufi saint Azan Pir, saying they are part of the greater Assamese society.
Mahanta assured that he will push for the Assamese Syed Welfare Trust's proposal to introduce the Azan Pir chair in Gauhati University and that he will work towards republishing the works of renowned Assamese writer Syed Abdul Malik's 'Jikirs Aru Jari'.
Assamese Syed Welfare Trust president Syed Abdul Rashid Ahmed also spoke on the occasion.
