WEF Davos 2020: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Kamal Nath said that in all the decades he visited Davos, he had never seen such a subdued buzz around India. Speaking to Rahul Kanwal on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum 2020 in Davos, Nath said that all people were asking about was the economic slowdown and the growing social unrest.
"In all the decades that I have been coming to Davos, I have never seen the buzz around India being so subdued. Whoever I meet is asking about the falling economy and growing social unrest," said Nath.
The MP CM said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about cooperative federalism but when it comes to big issues such as Citizenship Amendment Act, states are not consulted. "PM talks of cooperative federalism. But states are not consulted before big decisions like CAA are rolled out. Youth of India are frustrated with PM Modi and this frustration will keep coming out in different ways. National CAA protests have hurt PM's image," said the Congress leader.
Nath's comments come after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut India's growth rate to 4.8 per cent from 6.1 per cent it had predicted in October last year. Tech Mahindra CEO CP Gurnani said at Davos that it was very unusual that a growth rate that was pegged at 8-10 per cent has had reduced to 4-5 per cent.
Moreover, IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said that India was primarily responsible for the global economic slowdown. Gita Gopinath told India Today, "We have projected global growth at 2.9 per cent for 2019 and 3.3 per cent for 2020 which is 0.1 percentage point lower than the October estimates. The vast majority of it comes from our downgrade for India which was quite significant for both years."
India's economic growth is projected at 4.8 per cent for 2019. It is estimated to improve to 5.8 per cent in 2020 and climb to 6.5 per cent in 2021.
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