Spurring growth

This refers to ‘Recovery, WIP’ (September 2). Considering the monetary tightening measures resorted to by the US and Europe and with recession looming large at a global level, the 13.5 per cent growth in real GDP for the first quarter needs to be treated as a ‘silver lining’. But this should not lead to complacency on the part of the government as there are multiple factors at the global level which are at play which may impact growth.

These include the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, worsening China-Taiwan relations and the slowing down of China’s economy due to zero-Covid policy pursued by the government.

On the other hand, with India facing a widening trade deficit with China, it will be passing through a challenging phase unless there is a quick reversal in the trend at the global level. On the domestic front, the increase in unemployment rate and decelerating credit growth should pose as challenges. In the ensuing monetary policy, the RBI will have the tough task of balancing multiple objectives.

Srinivasan Velamur

Chennai

Challenges ahead

The latest report from the NSO (National Statistical Office) has pointed to a 13.5 per cent growth in real GDP in the first quarter of current fiscal year, below the RBI’s estimate of 16.8 per cent. It is nothing but a clear pointer to the challenges ahead to script robust economic recovery. With global headwinds such as economic slowdown in China, monetary tightening policy measures of the central banks of the developed world to rein in inflation have continued to pose a threat to our economic recovery.

The RBI has its task cut out to revive growth while not losing its focus on tackling inflationary pressures on the economy. With private investment and consumption remaining muted, it is incumbent upon the Central Government to unleash fiscal measures to spur growth.

M Jeyaram

Sholavandan, TN

Scaling up logistics

The refers to ‘Gati Shakti will ramp up logistics efficiency’ (September 2). Recently, the Transport Minister said that our roads will be like in the US in the next two years. Gati Shakti has the potential to achieve that provided there is proper synchronisation between all the ministries and stakeholders concerned. The opening of freight corridors will rationalise logistics movement and rail transport can realise its full potential. Data, no doubt, will play a huge role in identifying demand and multimodal connectivity.

Bal Govind

Noida

Unemployment problem

This refers to ‘Unemployment rose to 8.28 per cent in August: CMIE’ (September 2). India’s unemployment rose to a one-year high in August, as the economy’s world-beating growth failed to translate into increased employment opportunities.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a plan to fill one million vacancies in government departments by 2024, but data shows the state recruited just 0.3 per cent of the candidates who applied in the last eight years. Weaker recovery in the farm sector, which has been impacted by heat waves and uneven rains, is weighing on employment prospects.

Data released Wednesday showed agriculture output rose 4.5 per cent in three months to June — the slowest pace among all the sectors. .

N Sadhasiva Reddy

Bengaluru

Raising PSBs’ market share

This refers to ‘FinMin wants public sector banks to regain market share in credit’ (September 2). While the Finance Ministry may be on the right path when asking public sector bank (PSB) chiefs to focus on increasing the share of retail and MSME advances apart from urging them to leverage ‘co-lending’ to drive growth in advances in these segments, it could be a Herculean task for them to compete with private banks.

RBI data show that while private banks’ share in total credit has steadily increased to 35.4 per cent in March 2021 from 20.8 per cent in March 2015, public sector banks’ has fallen from 71.6 per cent to 56.5 per cent over the same period.

PSBs continue to be beset with bureaucratic hurdles when it comes to extending credit to the most desired segments of the economy as well.

Kumar Gupt

Panchkula, Haryana

comment COMMENT NOW