India’s growth story can not be written off – Anand Sharma

India’s growth story can not  be written off – Anand Sharma

Mumbai, August 30, 2013

Union Minister for Commerce & Industry,  Mr.  Anand Sharma today asserted  that India's growth story can not be written off as the fundamentals of the economy continue to remain strong. "If any body says Indian economy  is in a position from which it can not recover, they are wrong", he said while speaking at the CHEMEXCIL Export Awards ceremony  in Mumbai Friday evening.

Mr.  Sharma said there is a lot of negativity  being spread about the domestic economic situation through daily commentary adding to despondency. He rejected the argument that India is  facing a
pre 1991 situation, saying that the foreign exchange reserves are satisfactory, foreign debt is at a manageable level and the debt to GDP ratio has been constantly coming down.

The Minister admitted that there is turbulence as the country's economy is faced with strong headwinds. "In a connected global economy, it is natural to be affected" he said. "From Brazil to Russia to Indonesia, there is not a single economy, whose currency has not been depreciated. But, there is no reason to panic, no need to be despondent" added the Minister.

Mr.  Anand Sharma also admitted that the decision making has been slow, which needed to be speeded up. He said "there are too many external factors, too many no go areas, that are hampering the decision making process."  "India has among the highest coal reserves in the world, yet, the country is importing coal. Not because of any executive decision, but because of external restrictions" he observed.

Mr.  Sharma said, while the executive and the political class was held accountable, other organs who have vitiated the investment climate have no accountability.

The Commerce & Industry Minister complimented the chemical industry for bucking the recessionary trends and posting a robust growth of over 20 per cent. He said the chemical industry has potential to grow further and improve its share in the global chemical industry, which is only 3% at present. The export performance of CHEMEXCIL during 2012-13 was US $ 13.86 billion as compared to US $ 11.27 billion in 2011-12.

On this occasion, Mr Anand Sharma presented CHEMEXCIL Life Time Achievement Awards to Nadir Godrej of Godrej Industries Ltd, Mumbai and Shyam Bhartiya of Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd, Noida. All together 75 export awards were presented in recognition of  outstanding export performances