Headline: Finance minister and crisis manager Source: Euromoney Date: September 2000 Author: Kala Rao India’s finance minister, Yashwant Sinha, is no stranger to a crisis. In an earlier stint as finance minister, he steered his country through a difficult balance of payments crisis in 1991. He was again the finance minister when the Asian crisis broke and economic sanctions were imposed on India. Now he faces the tough tasks of downsizing government and pushing through the first real attempt at privatization. When he met Euromoney in late July, he seemed confident that he could accomplish both tasks. India seemed relatively unscathed by the Asian crisis. You have set a GDP growth target of 7% to 8%. What are the big challenges that India must face to achieve that?
In order to propel growth to over 7% we have to directly attack poverty, particularly in the rural areas, and create new jobs. |