Prime Minister
Narendra Modi held a virtual brainstorming session with key regulators of the
financial sector on 30th of July to discuss various measures the government
intends to take to help revive the Indian economy hit hard by the COVID-19
crisis. The 3 hour long virtual meeting was attended by RBI Governor
Shaktikanta Das, Sebi chairman Ajay Tyagi, Irdai chairman S C Khuntia, and
PFRDA chairman Supratim Bandyopadhyay along with Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman, Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, and Commerce and Industry
Minister Piyush Goyal among other ministers & top government
officials.
The meeting was organised to discuss various
steps taken & can be taken by chief financial regulators, primarily the
Reserve Bank of India, to help push the economic growth of the country at a
time when it has been predicted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to
contract by as much as 4.5% during the current fiscal.
According to the IMF, it is yet possible for
India to introduce fiscal & monetary measures, but for these measures to
work as they should, she needs to contain the coronavirus spread so that the
economic recovery is sustainable.
Since February, many different measures have been adopted by the government to help tide over the economic downslide triggered by the global recession & COVID-19 pandemic. Let us take a quick look at some of them :
- A Rs.20.97 lakh crore economic package was announced by the Finance Ministry, nearly 40% of which included the different liquidity measures introduced by RBI.
- By greatly relaxing the monetary policy, reducing the requirement of reserves, & introducing liquidity upto almost 3.9% of the GDP, the Reserve Bank of India has sought to tackle the looming crisis ahead.
- The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai), and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (Pfrda) have also taken up measures aimed at providing relief to individuals and industries.
Challenges likely to be faced by the regulators in the post-covid world, as well as various key elements of the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme were also discussed in the aforesaid meeting.
The government, after its previous economy revival measures, is now deliberating another round of stimulus aimed at boosting demand. Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier held a virtual meeting with the CEOs of various public & private sector banks as well as the heads of different non banking financial companies (NBFCs).
In this virtual meeting, PM Narendra Modi emphasised on the essential role of the finance sector in supporting as well as helping revive the economy. He requested bankers to :
- Reconsider their current practices to help ensure a stable growth of credit
- Encourage entrepreneurs, small scale business owners, farmers, self-help groups, etc. to draw upon & use institutional credit for growth
- Be bolder in dealing with bankable proposals being less apprehensive about possible non-performing assets (NPAs)
PM Modi impressed greatly on the need for this sector to step up & help the revival of the economy, also assuring them that the government will take all the steps necessary to support the finance sector and insulate it from losses.
0 comments:
Post a Comment