India is close to finalizing agreements with several nations to facilitate trade settlements in
Indian rupees
, according to Union home minister
Amit Shah
. In an interview with ET, Shah said this is a top priority for the new government, although discussions have been temporarily paused due to the ongoing elections.
Shah explained, “Moving ahead, trade in Indian rupee will be the biggest way forward.
Let me explain. We may have deficit but let’s say a country like Germany may have something which can be traded bilaterally in Euro and Rupees. The trade deficit may well be in international currency but a large amount of bilateral trade can shift to our own respective national currencies.”
Asked about US President Joe Biden’s comment about countries like India, China, Russia, and Japan losing out on economic growth due to xenophobia, Shah stated that he had not thoroughly reviewed Biden’s remarks. However, he highlighted India’s economic progress over the past decade as proof of its growing economic stature.
“I haven’t seen President Biden’s statement. However, in the past 10 years, we have become the fifth largest economy of the world and a road map is ready for us to become the world’s third largest economy over the next two-three years,” Shah said. “Now that our exports are increasing, we are being considered as a potential hub for international manufacturing. Our economy is being ranked high by others year after year. Therefore, I don’t think it’s right for anyone to assume there’s no economic growth here.”
In response to a question about
job creation
, Amit Shah stated, “The government for the first time has created new avenues for self-employment. There are crores of street vendors who were left on their own. The government came up with the PM Swanidhi Yogana under which nearly 1 crore street vendors were provided loans without any guarantee. Today, they are promoting the digital economy and can repay their loans.”
According to the available data, there are 8.2 lakh registered startups that have directly generated 15 lakh jobs, he said. Government statistics indicate a consistent decline in the
unemployment rate since 2017-18, from 6.1% to 5.8% in 2019-20, 4.8% in 2020-21, 4.2% in 2021-22, and 4.1% in the previous year, he added.
Amit Shah highlighted that the number of demat accounts has increased from 2.22 crore in 2014 to 15.1 crore today. This growth is attributed to the participation of the middle and upper-middle class, educated youth, housewives, and others investing in the markets using demat accounts. Consequently, under PM Modi’s leadership, the stock market has risen to Rs 400 lakh crore, compared to Rs 85 lakh crore during the Manmohan Singh government, he said.
When asked about future areas of investment and development plans, Shah said that new sectors have been identified that will impact the global economy for the next 25 years. These sectors include green nitrogen, biofuel, electrical vehicles, batteries, and fintech.
Additionally, the government aims to further develop defence manufacturing and export, mobiles and electronic equipment, space technologies, and the toy industry for India’s pride. The Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme has been introduced in various sectors to ensure that the manufacturing chains for these sectors are established in India. A total of 36 chains have been identified, and their manufacturing chains have been streamlined, he said.
