India needs to catch up on 'lost decade', says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking at an interactive event with chartered accountants, bankers and women entrepreneurs in Bengaluru.

Taking a swipe at the UPA era between 2004 and 2014, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on April 6 that India needs to catch up on the 'lost decade' when no fundamental work in infrastructure was done.

She was speaking at an interactive event with chartered accountants, bankers and women entrepreneurs in Bengaluru.

Responding to a query from a participant, Nirmala Sitharaman said: “Many expressed urban transport as a concern as some said we are losing investments due to poor urban transport. We need to do something more which is a very genuine concern.”

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Citing examples of the Mysuru-Bengaluru expressway, Metro, suburban rail, Vande Bharat train, flyovers initiated by the NDA government, she said: “It is not enough. More needs to be done. But we’ll have to do the catching up all over the country on the lost decade. It was lost in corruption and no fundamental work was done at that time."

Calling attention to developmental work done by the government in the north-east region, Sitharaman said: “Very rapid work on improving connectivity, infrastructure, digital, rail, road, airways is happening but even that is not sufficient. I'm happy to say that the need for good urban infrastructure and rural infrastructure is being felt by each one of us."

“We wouldn't have dared to ask the government (UPA) for 10 years. I will say at that time one road for a village would have been a big thing."

To a query from a chartered accountant on the need to create financial literacy, a visibly annoyed minister replied that she didn’t expect such a question.

“National Securities Depository Limited as well as Reserve Bank of India have wonderful digital financial literacy programmes which are available for anyone. In fact, I was surprised to hear it from a chartered accountant on the need for financial literacy programmes I would have thought and that itself raises a question to me,” she said.

“I would tell the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India also to first tell their own members, the various institutions which are promoting financial literacy and have Chartered Accountants but before they get their certification to recite a list of those institutions which are giving financial literacy hours they don't get certified,” she added.