The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley visited today the Sydney Campus of S P Jain School of Global Management and delivered a Lecture on ‘Reimagining India’.

Stating that India continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the Finance Minister said that India is yet to realise its full potential of growth. He said that even during the global economic turmoil in the past, India has always showed resilience. Mentioning the significant improvement in the macroeconomic stability, as reflected in low levels of inflation, contained fiscal deficit (FD) and Current Account Deficit (CAD), he said that this has been in spite of uncertain global economic situation.

The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley further said that in the last 22 months, the present Government has undertaken various initiatives and reforms. He said that the Government has opened India's economy for investment in different sectors. The Government is working towards ease of doing business, making process transparent and speeding-up the stalled projects. On tax front, the Government is working towards rationalisation of both direct and Indirect tax regime. The Government has undertaken measures to boost the growth by increasing public investment, expanding financial inclusion, streamlining governance and improving business environment through reforms in policies and regulation.

Highlighting the impressive strides taken by Indian economy backed by reforms in key areas, especially the focus on following the path of fiscal prudence and price stability, the Finance Minister mentioned that all these factors have stimulated and stabilised the economy and prepared ground for growth rates of 8 % or higher in the next couple of years.

Earlier, Shri Mr Nitish Jain, President, SP Jain School welcomed the Finance Minister and briefed the audience about the history and courses run by the school.

The event was attended among others by the Indian High Commissioner in Australia, Mr Navdeep Suri, Australian High Commissioner in India Ms Harinder Sidhu, Faculty and students of S.P. Jain Global School, academician, media, businessperson and members of Indian diaspora.

Economic reform agenda advances tax rationalisation and ease of doing business to foster stronger growth prospects. The Government's reform-driven agenda emphasises improved macroeconomic stability-contained inflation, fiscal deficit and current account deficit-and operational measures to open sectors to investment, expedite stalled projects, increase public investment, expand financial inclusion, streamline governance, and rationalise direct and indirect taxes; these combined policy tools, together with fiscal prudence and price stability, are presented as creating conditions for higher growth.