NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, said here on Saturday thatIndia needs to create such a productive environment for investors, that makes them feel that doing business in India is profitable.

Jaitley said that the essence of economy starts from investment.

“We have to get our banked and unbanked resources together. In some area where we think it’s appropriate we have to get the investment from outside that also becomes an additional resource. We then have to create an environment that doing business in India is profitable and it is this economic activity that will generate jobs, revenue, which enriches the government, which in turn can create infrastructure, which in turn can use these resources for the poverty alleviation schemes. So essence is, all starts with investment,” said Jaitley.

Expectations had been high that the government would utilise India’s strongest election mandate in 30 years to take radical steps comparable to the 1991 market reforms that unleashed an era of high economic growth.

But in a bid to halt a two-year spell of weak growth, the government instead announced incremental steps to boost capital spending in Asia’s third largest economy and reassure foreign investors that they would get fair treatment.

Jaitley further added that unbanked money should be brought under the ambit of banking system which can be used for greater economic purposes.