Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday viewed the revenue buoyancy as an encouraging factor to aim for an ambitious growth path.
Addressing the 88th annual function of Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), Mr. Mukherjee underlined that the steady expansion in domestic demand along with the growth rate had allowed for revenue buoyancy giving hope and courage to aim high to strengthen and build further the inclusive character of the economy.
The annual general meeting paved the way for change of guard for Swati Piramal to take over as the President of Assocham from Sajjan Jindal.
Mr. Mukherjee stressed, however, that the ability to generate adequate employment opportunities would e the factor on which to judge the inclusiveness of the economic growth. He called for bringing down the incidence of poverty and improving a number of other socio-economic indicators to strengthen the inclusive aspect of the development process.
Pointing out that challenges such as capital inflows, inflationary explosion and financial meltdown had impeded the high growth during the past couple of years, the Union Finance Minister stressed that the only way to ride these shocks and uncertainties was to deepen and broaden the domestic market. The only way to achieve this was through a balanced and broad-based approach to our development process. The imperativeness was to reach out to the two-thirds of population in rural areas and provide opportunities to them from the ongoing economic expansion.
Stress on inclusiveness
The approach will not only strengthen the inclusive character of the growth process but also for anticipating and addressing the demographic issues associated with unplanned urbanisation that the absence of a regionally balanced growth could potentially spark.
Mr. Mukherjee expressed confidence of sustaining the momentum of the economy to historically unprecedented levels on account of the fact that savings and investment rates had picked up and investors, domestic as well as international, were exhibiting confidence and the fundamentals of the economy were sound with steady increase in domestic demand.
Later, participating in the deliberation, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia underscored the fact that the country would not be clocking the average 9 per cent growth in the XI Plan as to do a growth rate of 11 per cent was required during the next two years.
