Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said the foremost challenge before the country is to accelerate the pace of economic expansion and achieve double-digit growth rate.
“The first and foremost is to increase the pace of growth rate and then consolidate it after (the growth rate) touches the double digit mark, besides developing the basic infrastructure in rural and urban sectors,” he said.
Mr. Mukherjee said this while speaking at a convocation of National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, where he was conferred on the degree of DLitt (Honorus Causa).
Following the impact of the global financial crisis, India’s growth rate slipped to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09 from over nine per cent in the preceding three years. For the current fiscal, the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) has projected a growth rate of 7.2 per cent.
Raising economic growth, Mr. Mukherjee said, was necessary to fund the programmes to provide food security to people and improve healthcare facilities in the country.
Earlier, the Minister conferred on 380 degrees of PhD, M Tech, B Tech, MBA and MCA and gave away prizes and medals to the students with distinction marks.
