Despite global headwinds, Indian economy will stay on course: FM Sitharaman
Washington (PTI): The Indian economy will stay on course despite global headwinds and is projected to grow at seven per cent in fiscal 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said, attributing this to the conducive domestic policy environment and focus on key structural reforms.
Sitharaman's remarks came during her intervention at the plenary session of the international Monetary Finance Committee (IMFC) on Friday.
The meeting itself, she said, is being held at a juncture when the global economic outlook is clouded by key downside risks: growth slowdown in major economies, cross-border effects due to the ongoing geopolitical situation, inflationary pressures led by escalating food and energy prices that have adversely impacted vulnerable economies.
Despite global headwinds, the Indian economy will stay on course and is projected to grow at seven per cent in FY 2022-23. This is an outcome of the conducive domestic policy environment and the government's focus on key structural reforms to boost growth, she said.
She told members of the IMFC that the Indian Government has taken initiatives to protect growth while pursuing inflation management.
The government has ensured the availability of free food grains to more than 800 million vulnerable families for the past 25 months, through the country's massive public distribution network, she said.
Last-mile delivery of financial services to the poor has been a key priority of the government and this has been aided by India's digital public good infrastructure.
Today, India is leading the world in terms of digital payments innovations with our transaction cost being the lowest in the world, Sitharaman said.
Of the view that the IMF needs to increase resources available for emerging and low-income countries to safeguard the global financial system, Sitharaman underscored that concluding the 16th General Review of Quotas (GRQ) by December 15th, 2023 is vital for increasing the voting rights of emerging market economies (EMES) in line with their relative positions in the world economy.
India's quota in the IMF, which determines voting shares in the multi-lateral lending agency, is 2.75 per cent. China's quota is 6.4 per cent and that of the US is 17.43 per cent.
A general review allows the IMF to assess the adequacy of quotas in relation to both the members' balance of payments in financing needs and the Fund's ability to help meet those needs.
Observing that a key downside risk to global recovery is the exacerbated debt distress in many low-income countries, Sitharaman said it is therefore important that the IMF provides the necessary support to deal with the balance of payments-related vulnerabilities.
As such she welcomed IMF's recent initiative of a new food shock window to help countries address food insecurity.
On climate change, she emphasised the importance of a multilateral approach with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
India has set out an ambitious climate action path through its updated Nationally Determined Contributions that demonstrates India's commitment at the highest level to decoupling economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions.
Transfer of climate finance and low-cost climate technologies from developed to developing countries has assumed critical significance, Sitharaman said.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
