Opinion Continuity on economic reforms in President’s speech is heartening

In one sense, President Droupadi Murmu’s first speech in Parliament follows the broad pattern set by her predecessor, Ram Nath Kovind, five years ago. Murmu’s address highlights the robustness of the India growth story, the major focus areas of the government, the success of its various welfare policies, schemes and programmes, and the rising profile of the country on the global stage, among others. But, this time around, the President’s address also laid out the broad contours of what economic policy might look like in the coming months.

More importantly, Murmu spoke about the new government’s first budget in the forthcoming session of Parliament. She said that the budget will outline the government’s “far-reaching policies and futuristic vision”, and that “many historic steps” will be taken. At a time when there are some concerns over the ability of a coalition government to push through reforms, especially the more contentious ones, it is heartening to hear the President talk of continuity and say that the pace of reforms will be “accelerated” in line with the aspirations of the people. It is, in fact, difficult to miss the emphasis on economic matters in the speech. The President also spoke about the government striving to ensure that India becomes the third-largest economy in the world — the government has, in the past, spoken about claiming this distinction in its third term. Equally welcome is the acknowledgement that the growth of the country is dependent on the growth of the states, and the need for both competitive and cooperative federalism where states compete with each other to attract investment. The emphasis of the speech on women’s welfare, on turning around the public sector banks, and the development of physical infrastructure — the hallmark of the Narendra Modi government in the past 10 years — cannot be missed. There is also a mention of the sunrise sectors such as electric vehicles, semiconductors, green hydrogen and batteries, which are being actively promoted. Equally important is the talk of challenges which the government is addressing such as climate change.

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However, at the same time, it must be acknowledged that even as India may well be on its way to become the third-largest economy, the country will remain the poorest among the largest economies in the world. The real test of this government is to strengthen the foundations of all the pillars of growth — agriculture, manufacturing and services — and facilitate the generation of large-scale employment opportunities for the millions entering the labour force. Only this will secure India’s development trajectory. All eyes will be on the finance minister when she presents the budget in July.