Big reforms made India fastest growing major economies globally: DEA Secy

The major reforms undertaken by the Indian government for raising economic growth and maintaining macroeconomic stability have made the country one of the fastest growing major economies in the world, said Subhash Chandra Garg, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA). Garg was addressing the Special Event hosted by US-India Strategic Partnership Forum on `Indian Economy: Prospect and Challenges` in Washington D.C on Friday. He said the launch of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) represented an "historic economic and political achievement, unprecedented in Indian tax and economic reforms, which has rekindled optimism on structural reforms."

He further emphasized that India carried-out such major reforms when the global economy was slow. "With the cyclical recovery in global growth amid supportive monetary conditions and the transient impact of the major structural reforms over, India will continue to perform robustly," Garg said. During his meetings, Garg highlighted that the digital age technologies have profound implications for policies concerning every aspects of the economy. It also has enormous implications for emerging markets and developing countries.  He expressed that the response to such a transformation will have to shift from `catch up` growth to adoption/adaption of digital technologies for development and growth.

Garg also informed that India has started adopting policies and programmes for transforming systems of delivery of services using digital technologies and connecting every Indian with digital technologies and access through Aadhaar and other such means. While citing the example of expanding mobile data access, he mentioned that India is now the largest consumer of mobile data in the world with 11 gigabytes mobile data consumption per month.

He informed that India is investing in digital technologies, encouraging private sector to adapt these technologies and also addressing the taxation related issues by introducing equalisation levy. Garg is currently on an official tour to Washington D.C. to attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and other associated meetings. He is accompanied by Urjit Patel, Governor, Reserve Bank of India and other senior officials.