Nirmala Sitharaman is the current Finance Minister of India, having taken on the role in 2019. Prior to this, she held several important roles in the government, including serving as the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, and the Minister of Defence.
One of the key policies implemented by Sitharaman has been the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which aims to simplify and streamline the tax system in India. The GST has replaced several indirect taxes with a single tax and has been implemented in an effort to boost economic growth and increase the ease of doing business in the country.
In addition to the GST, Sitharaman has also focused on addressing the issue of non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking sector. NPAs refer to loans or advances that have remained unpaid for a long period of time and are in danger of default. These NPAs can have a negative impact on the financial health of banks and financial institutions, as they can reduce the amount of available capital and increase the risk of loan losses. One of the measures implemented by Finance Minister Sitharaman to address NPAs is the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The IBC is a comprehensive legislation that provides a time-bound process for resolving insolvency and bankruptcy cases in a transparent and efficient manner. This code has helped in the resolution of NPAs by providing a framework for the recovery of bad debts and the sale of assets of defaulting companies. Other measures implemented by the government to address NPAs include the setting up of the Asset Quality Review (AQR), which is a comprehensive review of the quality of assets of banks, and the introduction of the Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A), which provides a framework for restructuring the debts of stressed assets in a sustainable manner.
Another key policy implemented by Sitharaman has been the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, or the self-reliant India campaign. This initiative aims to boost domestic production and reduce the country’s reliance on imports. As part of this campaign, Sitharaman has announced a number of measures, including the establishment of a production-linked incentive scheme for 10 sectors, and the creation of a fund of over rupees 3 lakh crores to support the growth of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). As this policy has encouraged domestic production by the input of necessary funds to various types of firms and businesses, it helps in reducing India’s trade deficit and make the country more self-reliant. In addition to this, the policy includes measures to support research and development in strategic sectors, which could help to drive innovation and improve the competitiveness of these sectors. Thus, this policy has the potential to make industries more competitive in the global market. The novel policy has been supported by a majority of Indians since it aims to support the backward classes and offer financial assistance to farmers who have suffered losses in massive income during the pandemic. This policy has prevented India’s boat, which is its economy from sinking during the covid 19 pandemic as the streamlined inflow of money ensured that there were very limited periods of regression.
Apart from the compelling economic policies, Sitharaman has also focused on improving the infrastructure in India, with a particular emphasis on the development of rural areas. To this end, she has announced a number of initiatives, including the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, which aims to connect all villages in the country with all-weather roads, and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, which aims to provide affordable housing to all citizens. Both initiatives aim to achieve the key macroeconomic objective of the Indian government: income equality. These policies have received widespread support from the lower class and the middle-class people which have helped in bolstering the support for Nirmala Sitharaman.
When the pandemic abruptly hit the world for the first time, it snatched away more than 1 million lives and grasped people’s jobs which resulted in an exponential increase in the unemployment levels by a whopping 8.9%, pushing more people into absolute poverty. The lockdown and the shutting down of businesses led to a crashdown of the economic growth rate in India by 23.9% in 2020 and this was deemed as the worst performance of the Indian economy ever. Nirmala Sitharaman faced severe backlash for this where the critics exemplified her as the “ Worst Finance Minister of India”. The criticisms were not only confined to economic terms but stretched on to social factors where she was labeled as incompetent and irresponsible just because she was a female. The denunciation of Nirmala Sitharaman was morally unjust because the critics and the public were raising questions about the proficiency and prowess of females in general. However, with the implementation of the aforementioned policies and the release of a very successful budget in 2021 and 2022, she slammed on the negative and prejudicial mindset of the people as India’s economy started to stabalise and reach the optimum level as planned.
