Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) can manage the volatility due to aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB). Sitharaman was speaking at the India Ideas Summit. She added that inflation is not red-lettered and has been managed in the past. She noted, "Inflation is not a red-lettered priority. I hope it doesn't surprise many of you. We have shown that in the past couple of months that we were able to bring it to a manageable level."
Sitharaman mentioned that "jobs, equitable wealth distribution and making sure India is moving on the path of growth" are red-lettered priorities.
The minister stated that India is set to take over the G20 grouping of nations at a particularly challenging time and its focal point will be emerging markets.
Sitharaman further underlined that India and the US together could comprise 30% of global GDP. "What I see as a global possibility, is if India and US were to work together, within the next 20 years, I guess we will reach a 30% of global economy size. And, we shall be contributing to the global GDP to the extent of about 30%. And, that itself will make US & India an engine of global growth," she said.
The Union Minister said India managed challenging times with targeted fiscal policy and did not have to print money, especially COVID-19 pandemic.
The minister also talked about how Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) will aid in the growth of India's retail and manufacturing sector. She added ONDC will also help digitise small-scale traders without additional charges.
Besides this, she also addressed the energy crisis exacerbated by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and said uncertainty over availability of crude oil and natural gas still lingers on.
Meanwhile, RBI Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said that the central bank is working towards data security and infrastructure stability as its focus is to ensure data safety and privacy. He also noted that India is one of the significant markets for global payments technologies and advocated for standardised application programming interface (API) norms across countries.
(With agency inputs)