By Lalit K JhaWashington, Oct 13 (PTI) A "different India" is ready tobenefit from a strong global economic recovery after a seriesof reforms including demonetisation, goods and services tax,easing of regulations and procedures, Finance Minister ArunJaitley has said.
In first public appearance at the IMF headquarters hereafter his arrival in the city, Jaitley echoed InternationalMonetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde and WorldBank President Jim Yong Kim, who have said that the world isexperiencing a strong economic recovery.
"After several years of disappointing growth, the globaleconomy has begun to accelerate," Kim told reporters earlier.
In a separate news conference, Lagarde later said sheexpects higher global growth this year and next.
By all indications there is a "more positive mood aroundthe world" as far as economy is concerned, Jaitley said whileparticipating in a seminar at the IMF headquarters organisedby the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
"Obviously as an economy which is globally integrated, ifworld economy moves on consequential impact on demand, theIndian economy would also follow. And I do see, that as one ofthe various reasons why in the coming months and years Indiaeconomy is also probably destined to move up," he said, whileadmitting that the last three years had been extremelydifficult.
India, he argued, now offers bright opportunities.
"The first factor in the opportunity is do we allowpeople to come in. Obviously as a country which has realisedthe virtues of more investment into the country, we havesystematically liberalised our policy over the years andprobably one of the more liberal economies in the world," hesaid, adding not only India has liberalised, it has also madethe procedures of entry very simple.
"But it is also a harsh reality that merely we have adoor wide open that's not enough for people to enter. Whenthey enter they must feel more comfortable. And they may feelthat India is an extremely comfortable place to do businesswith," the finance minister said.
Noting that there are more factors that stand out, hesaid, "And in that sense, it is a different India."The first is irrespective of the federal and multi-partycharacter of India there is now a feeling both in the centerand different state governments, without exception, that eachone wants investment to come to his or her state, he said.
Therefore, each one is bent upon creating an environmentwhich is more friendly, he added.
"This augurs quite well for an opportunity in India," henoted.
Secondly, India has cut short most of its procedures. Andas ease of doing business year after year indicated, land andbuilding is one area where India needs to improve, he said.
Jaitley said a lot of state government are putting theirhouse in order and the government desecration havesubstantially ended.
"This has brought down if not eliminated the stigma ofcorruption which was once a stigma to India," Jaitley said,adding that people have now realised that India in many partsis much cleaner place to do business.
That itself adds to the opportunity of doing business inIndia. And then comes the factors of great availability ofhuman resources in India, a large market in India and theability of India to reform, the minister observed.
He said after coming to power, the Modi government hastaken a series of steps to integrate the formal with theformal, to assault the shadow economy, and then take allconsequential steps one after the other all aimed in onedirection to expand India into a far, cleaner, bigger andbetter economy.
This was one of the objects of the series of reforms thatculminated in demonetisation itself, he said.
GST experience has shown that governments in the centerand the state are willing to take steps, Jaitley said.
Considering these sets of reforms there is a huge amountof opportunity in various sectors of Indian economy like theinfrastructure sector, he added.
"I think there is a huge amount of opportunity as faras India is concerned," he said. "It's quite comforting for usto find that investors view India as a country where they seea lot of activity going on," Jaitley added. PTI LKJZH.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.