The Indian economy is undergoing a “V-shaped recovery” and the world is watching the same in surprise, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on January 21.
Mr. Shah, one of the senior most members of the Cabinet, also said the COVID-19 vaccination drive is progressing well and once everyone is vaccinated, “we will attain victory over the pandemic”.
He made the comment while joining through videconference the inauguration of a four-lane over-bridge in Shilaj in Ahmedabad by Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel.
“Economies of all countries in the world were affected due to the coronavirus. But, the world is surprised and watching the V-shaped recovery of the Indian economy,” Mr. Shah said.
The GDP contracted by 23.9% in the June 2020 quarter due to the lockdown, and the contraction narrowed down to 7.5% in the September quarter as compared to the same in the year-ago period, as the unlock process began.
The demand situation has shown further improvement in the December quarter which witnessed the festivities, with several high-frequency indicators illustrating the same.
The Union government now expects the GDP to close FY21 with a contraction of 7.7%.
Mr. Shah also said that infrastructure development carried out under the Narendra Modi regime in the last six years exceeds that done by governments in the 20 years preceding the NDA government.
“The work done in the infrastructure sector in last six years is equivalent to that done in 20 years of previous governments,” he said.
He listed various infrastructure works like Metro lines, bullet train and other projects taken up by the Centre.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is working hard to develop infrastructure in the country, be it rural or urban areas.
The Modi government has provided electricity to all villages of the country, road connectivity, and has provided one bank account to every family.
“Ten crore families, or 30 crore people, in India were not having their own houses, and the way construction of houses for low income groups is going on, we are confident that every family will get a home by 2022,” Mr. Shah said.
“Another big project that we have taken up is providing piped water to every household by 2022,” he said.
Mr. Shah said the government has also taken up the work of removal of one lakh railway crossings on national and State highways by building over-bridges or under-bridges on them.
The work on around 5,000 such crossings has been completed and it is currently on in 8,000 other places, he said.
“The Shilaj bridge [inaugurated here on Thursday] is one such among the one lakh bridges [being built] on the railway crossings,” he said.
