Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur said that to boost the economy of the country, the Centre is expected to announce more measures in the next three to four days.
While speaking on the sidelines of the Gujarat University Start-up And Entrepreneurship Council (GUSEC) annual award programme where Thakur was the chief guest, he said, “The Finance Minister has taken a lot of initiatives, the effects of which will be soon witnessed in the coming days. More such announcements are to be made in the coming three to four days. The new set of announcements will be for the real estate sector also. When the different sectors will benefit, the country will automatically grow.”
Speaking about the initiatives taken by the Central Government in the recent past, Thakur said, “Bank mergers and the earlier decisions were taken only after consultations with the stakeholders. The foundation of our economy is very strong which will only grow stronger. That is the reason we started the meetings from Ahmedabad where we met the Income Tax officials, GST and customs officials. Besides, we also met traders and businessmen from five states and tried to solve their issues. This will be done in the future too.”
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Referring to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, Thakur denied that normalcy has not returned in the state. “Most areas of Jammu and Kashmir and Leh-Ladakh are very normal. Barring a few areas, the situation is normal and in the country’s favour. It is unfortunate that a few Congress leaders are batting for Pakistan while sitting here. It is harmful for the nation,” he said.
Thakur also announced that soon he would organise a start-up event in Jammu and Kashmir where he would take entrepreneurs from Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and a few other states.
“We will organise a big start-up event in Jammu and Kashmir. The participating youth will motivate those in Kashmir. When big companies will invest there, the talented local youth will also get ideas to set up their own ventures,” he said.
On former finance minister P Chidambaram mocking Modi government on 5 per cent GDP growth, Thakur said, “Let him first get rid of his problems.”
Further accusing Chidambaram of leaving the country’s economy in a bad shape, he said, “What he had done during his tenure of finance minister is in front of the country. During his time inflation was at its peak, fiscal deficit was uncontrollable and record scams were reported. Since Independence till 2009, only Rs 18 lakh crore was given by banks as loans, but between 2009 and 2014, Rs 58 lakh crore was disbursed as loans. We brought in the insolvency and bankruptcy code 2016, we pumped money back to banks. We plan to take Indian economy to 5 trillion by 2024-25 and for this we are going to take a lot of initiatives.”