India has scored on growth, welfare: FM

'Govt's focus on poor, farmers, women, youth showing results'

- Rhik Kundu & Gireesh Chandra Prasad

India’s economy has powered ahead of others, and its welfare schemes are now reaching more people, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday, in a spirited defence of the government’s work on economic and welfare fronts.

The Narendra Modi administration’s top priorities are the poor, farmers, women, and the youth, and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party wins elections because the people understand this, the minister said, in a week that began with the party’s thumping victory in three heartland states.

In a brief discussion on the economy in the Rajya Sabha, the minister reeled out figures to show that India was doing much better than developed economies as well as some of the emerging economies considered as the world’s growth engines. She also quoted figures to show that welfare schemes are now benefiting more people.

Earlier in the day, Sitharaman sent out a strong signal to policymakers in the European Union (EU), stating that levying a carbon border tax on imports to meet the bloc’s green agenda goes against the interests of the Global South.