New Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Pledges To Restore Economy

Arun Jaitley, the newly sworn-in Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister of India, said he would focus on restoring confidence of investors in Asia's third largest economy.

Soon after taking charge of the Finance Ministry, Jaitley stated that the country’s economy was passing through difficult times.

The biggest challenge before the new finance minister will be to revive an economy that is mired in its worst slowdown since the 1980s due to myriad issues, such as strained public finances, persistently high inflation, high interest rates and rising bad loans at banks.

Referring to his priorities as finance minister, Jaitley said that he had taken over the new responsibility at a very challenging time, particularly when there is a need to rebuild the confidence of the Indian economy.

Jaitley also added that the political change itself would send a strong signal to the global community, as also to the domestic investors.

The minister further said that the entire policy of the new government would be clarified in the next few days.

India had registered over 9% growth for a few years before the global financial meltdown of 2008 pulled it down. The economic growth rate slipped to as low as 4.5% in 2012-13. However, it inched up to 4.9% in 2013-14.

In the current fiscal, the growth rate is expected to rise further to 5.5%.

He also said that he would be looking after the Defence portfolio as an additional charge till there’s an expansion in the Cabinet.
Image: Thinkstock