New Delhi : Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on Thursday said that some "sweeping conclusions" were drawn from a "narrow set of facts", missing the "structural reforms" transforming the economy.
His remarks came a day after his father Yashwant Sinha lambasted the NDA government for “economic mess” and questioned the current methodology to calculate the GDP.
"The methodology for calculation of the GDP was changed by the present government in 2015 as a result of which the growth rate recorded earlier increased statistically by over 200 basis points on an annual basis. So, according to the old method of calculation, the growth rate of 5.7 per cent is actually 3.7 per cent or less."
Jayant, in a blog for The Times of India, wrote that one or two quarters of GDP growth was inadequate to ascertain the long-term impact of the structural reforms underway.
The "New India" requires the structural reforms, according to Jayant, for a "billion-strong" workforce and to enable them to lead better lives.
Yashwant had, in the Indian Express on Wednesday, written that he would fail in his national duty if he didn't speak against "the mess the finance minister had made of the economy".
While Yashwant referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation drive as "an unmitigated economic disaster", Jayant said that GST, demonetisation and digital payments were game-changing efforts to formalise India’s economy.
"In the long term, formalisation will mean (a) tax collections go up and more resources are available to the state; (b) friction in the economy is reduced and GDP goes up, and (c) citizens are able to establish credit more effectively as transaction records are digitised," Jayant wrote.
Jayant reflected on the benefits of innumerable schemes, including the rural electrification scheme announced by PM Modi recently, accruing to the people of the country.
"India is well on course to achieve 100% village electrification by 2018 with the number of villages remaining to be electrified having decreased to only 4,941 villages by 2017 from 18,452 in 2014," he wrote.
Jayant opined that "structural reforms" undertaken by the Modi government since 2014 constituted the third generation of reforms - first being the 1991 economic reforms and "second in the 1999-2004 NDA government".
Jayant's father Yashwant had also said that his opinion was shared by a number of people, who are currently part of the ruling party, but they won't "speak out of fear".
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