Economic Reforms Since 2014 Have Improved Ease of Doing Business, Encouraged Enterprise Spirit: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the reforms undertaken in the past nine years, since 2014, have improved ‘Ease of Doing Business’ and have also encouraged a spirit of enterprise among the youth.

“The last 9 years witnessed futuristic reforms which have not only improved ‘Ease of Doing Business’ but also encouraged a spirit of enterprise among our youth. We will keep working in this direction to boost growth and innovation,” the prime minister said in a tweet, sharing articles, graphics, videos and information about various reforms.

On Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said India is a “bright spot” in the global economy, and added that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) has zoomed to $3.75 trillion in 2023 from $2 trillion in 2014.

Sitharaman also said the Indian economy has moved from the 10th largest to the 5th largest economy in the world. According to the IMF’s projections, India last year surpassed the UK to become the world’s fifth-largest economy. Now, only four economies are ahead of India in terms of GDP — the US, China, Japan and Germany.

According to the latest National Statistics Office’s (NSO) data released recently, India’s GDP at factor cost (real GDP) grew 6.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022-23. For the entire FY23, the growth rate came in at 7.2 per cent, which was stronger than expected.

Last week, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the Indian economy and the financial sector are resilient, and the Q4 GDP growth was aided by fixed investment and higher exports. He also said the real GDP growth for 2023-24 is projected at 6.5 per cent, which is the same as earlier.

On the FY2023-24 prospects, the RBI governor said domestic demand conditions remain supportive of growth on the back of improving household consumption and investment activity.

“Domestic economic activity remains resilient in Q1:2023-24 as reflected in high-frequency indicators. Purchasing managers’ indices (PMI) for manufacturing and services indicated sustained expansion, with the manufacturing PMI at a 31-month high in May and services PMI at a 13-year high in April-May. In the services sector, domestic air passenger traffic, e-way bills, toll collections and diesel consumption exhibited buoyancy in April-May, while railway freight and port traffic registered modest growth,” Das said last week while presenting the June 2023 bi-monthly monetary policy.