Finance Minister to meet CMs and state FMs today

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet all chief ministers and state finance ministers to discuss ways to create a reform-focused business climate and further facilitate investments to help boost growth.

In a tweet, the finance ministry said the virtual meeting on November 15 would be attended by Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Karad, besides secretaries of Government of India line ministries, chief secretaries and finance secretaries of states.

"Discussion to be centred on creating an enabling ecosystem for increased pro-active facilitation for investments besides topics of energizing growth, reforms, augmenting investments and creating a reform-focused business climate," the ministry tweeted.

The meeting comes in the backdrop of strong economic recovery post the two COVID waves, and push by the central government to increase capital expenditure. The Centre believes that there is scope to capitalise on the positive sentiment of the private sector, with increasing demand, amid lower non-performing assets and banks willing to lend more.

In the April-June quarter of the current fiscal, the economy grew 20.1 per cent. Besides, the first four months of FY 2021-22 have witnessed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of USD 64 billion.

The IMF and World Bank peg India's GDP growth at about 9.5 per cent and 8.3 per cent, respectively, projecting India as one of the fastest-growing economies.

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