'Economic crisis: India fared better than others'

Though affected by the current global economic meltdown, India has fared much better than other countries of the world, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said today.  

"We have fared much better than others though we are also affected and our growth rates have come down from the nearly nine per cent average of the past four years to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09," Kaur said in her address to the UN Conference on World Financial and Economic Crisis being held at the UN headquarters in New York.  

In response to the crisis, Kaur said India has made aggressive use of fiscal and monetary policy, with particular focus on fiscal stimulus in infrastructure investment.  

"Our primary challenge is to get rid of chronic poverty, ignorance and disease, which still afflict millions and millions of our citizens. For this, we need a high rate of growth coupled with measures to make it inclusive," she said.  

"We have endeavored to achieve this through huge investments in the rural and farm sector, a massive rural employment guarantee scheme, infrastructure development projects, major national food security and rural health missions, and an urban renewal mission," Kaur said.

India, Kaur said, has actively engaged in the G-20 framework aimed at redressing the current global economic situation so as to bring the global economy back to the trajectory of sustained growth.  

Leaders of some of the largest economies, the G-20, have met twice in the past months and declared their determination to instill confidence and restore stability to the world economy, she said, adding they have also pledged to strengthen regulation, reform international financial institutions, reject protectionism and build recovery.  

The package of $1.1 trillion to restore credit and growth together with national measures constitutes a global plan for recovery on an unprecedented scale, Kaur said.  

Noting that India has a vested interest in the world economy doing well as that is a key enabler for India's growth too, the minister said: "But as we strive for global solutions to this global crisis, we must remember that development or economic growth cannot be slowed, halted or sacrificed in the search for solutions to the crisis."