Finance Minister Arun Jaitley chaired the 17th meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) on Tuesday, in which the Council discussed the issues and challenges facing the Indian economy.
The Council agreed that there was a need to maintain a constant state of preparedness to handle vulnerabilities, both internal and external.
“The Council noted that India has macro-economic stability today on the back of improvements in its macro-economic fundamentals, structural reforms with the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), action being taken to address the Twin Balance Sheet (TBS) challenge, extraordinary financial market confidence, reflected in high and rising bond and especially stock valuations and long-term positive consequences of demonetisation,” the government said in a release following the meeting.
“The Council also discussed the issues and challenges facing the Indian economy and members agreed on the need to keep constant vigil and be in a state of preparedness of managing any external and internal vulnerabilities,” the release added.
The Council also noted the progress of the Financial Sector Assessment Program for India, jointly conducted by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and directed that the assessment report be finalised by the end of this calendar year.
“FSDC took note of the developments and progress made in setting up of Computer Emergency Response Team in the Financial Sector (CERT-Fin) and Financial Data Management Centre and discussed measures for time bound implementation of the institution building initiative,” the release said. “The Council also deliberated on strengthening the regulation of the Credit Rating Agencies (CRAs).”
The meeting was also attended by Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel, Finance Secretary Ashok Lavasa, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal, Corporate Affair Secretary Tapan Ray, Electronics and Information Technology Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, SEBI Chairman Ajay Tyagi, IRDAI Chairman TS Vijayan, PFRDA Chairman Hemant Contractor, and other government officials.
