The Aryavarth Express
Agency(New Delhi): Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Interim Union Budget 2024, emphasized a more comprehensive interpretation of ‘GDP’, focusing on Governance, Development, and Performance. This approach aims to ensure people-centric and inclusive development across the nation.
Key Highlights from the Budget Presentation:
Transparent and Accountable Governance: The Minister stressed that the government has provided transparent, accountable, people-centric, and prompt trust-based administration. This aligns with the ‘citizen-first’ philosophy and the principle of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’.
Robust Economy: Smt. Sitharaman noted that the robustness of the economy is evident through strong investments, macro-economic stability, and visible impacts of all-round development across various sectors.
Empowerment and Aspirations: The government’s initiatives have led to people being better equipped and enabled to pursue their aspirations. Notably, the average real income of individuals has increased by 50%, inflation is moderate, and there’s efficient delivery of programs and large projects.
Economic Management Strategies: The Minister highlighted several key elements of the government’s economic management over the past decade, including:
– Rapid development of physical, digital, and social infrastructure.
– Active economic participation from all regions of the country.
– Utilization of Digital Public Infrastructure as a new ‘factor of production’ for formalization of the economy.
– Implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) for a unified market and tax system.
– Financial sector strengthening for efficient savings, credit, and investments.
– Development of GIFT-IFSC and the unified regulatory authority IFSCA to attract global capital and services.
– Proactive inflation management to keep inflation within the policy band.
These initiatives reflect the government’s holistic approach towards economic growth, focusing on governance, development, and performance to foster inclusive and sustainable development across India.