Economic slowdown part of cyclical process

New Delhi: Dispelling all doubts about the slowdown in the economy, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar on Sunday explained it was only a "cyclical process", and the fundamentals of the economy continues to remain "strong".

India in 2018 received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) more than China, the Minister said to prove the point.

Asked how the government would reach the $5 trillion economy in 2024 with the nominal increase in economic growth, the Minister said: "Our domestic economy is on a strong footing, and many new industries have come up because of new good governance model and rules which have been changed for foreign investments."

The Minister said the government is expecting that there will be more and more foreign investments and more and more domestic demand.

Dubbing the current economic condition a "patch", Javadekar said the slowdown would not hurt India's progress rate.

The Minister asserted that India's growth had been 7 per cent in the last five years and it would continue in future. "There is no situation to be panicky. Our economy is strong."

Javdekar also said that the 100 days of the Modi2.0 government were "full of unprecedented decisions and moves".

He said the most significant decisions taken include abrogation of Article 370 and 35A, bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories - Jammu and Kashmir with an Assembly and Ladakh without one.

Besides, the amendment to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act that paved the way for declaring Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) chief Hafiz Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, LeT's supreme commander of operations in Kashmir Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, all based in Pakistan, as terrorists.

The Minister said that the decisions were related to public welfare, public participation, against terrorism and other issues.