Green shoots visible, interventions can happen in future: Nirmala Sitharaman

The Finance Minister said the steps taken during the lockdown have borne fruit. “…during the lockdown the several things that have been done have now borne fruits that i can confidently tell you that we are able to see green shoots…the stimulus that we gave which has touched about 10 per cent of the GDP has actually made the difference for the companies which want to come out of the lockdown and the effects of the lockdown,” she said.

Measures taken by the government are having a positive impact on the ground for various sectors including MSMEs, she said adding that the government together with the Indian industry together will ensure a good, speedy and sustainable recovery post the pandemic.

Sitharaman said the rural economy is driving the economic revival. “We have had a very good summer crop. All of what was necessary has been procured at reasonable price so that farmers are not left high and dry looking for purchasers. Now the estimate for the kharif crop has also come. We can clearly see the agriculture sector is driving the revival,” she said.

Speaking at the same event, Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj said the government will soon announce privatisation policy for public sector companies and also soon come out with a production linked incentive scheme for more sectors like for mobile phones and pharmaceutical sector.

Bajaj said that asset monetisation in road, power, railways is a priority and the government is making efforts towards it apart from spending on infrastructure. “One important thing that I would like to mention is a thing that should soon come out is the privatisation of the public sector companies. This is a major announcement. I would say after 1956 when we decided to have public sector enterprises as our showpieces, this is the first time that any government has said that we will not have companies in the non-strategic sector in the public sector and in the strategic sectors also we will have less number of companies.”