News Digest

Going for growth: India outlines budget aimed at boosting investment

India’s finance minister has announced his government’s new budget, promising a slew of measures that attempt to balance welfare spending with high economic growth and infrastructure development while vowing to keep a tight control on fiscal deficit. Today’s announcement was finance minister Arun Jaitley’s first full budget since prime minister Narendra Modi won a thumping majority in national elections in May on the back of promises that he would turn around the economy and boost job creation.

We inherited a sentiment of doom and gloom. The investment community had almost written us off. We have come a long way since then.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley

Jaitley said the Indian economy is expected to grow at 7.4% in the current fiscal year, which ends in March, and will grow more than 8% in the next year. Jaitley said his government would stick to the fiscal deficit target of 4.1% of GDP in the current year. India also plans to spend $40 billion on the defence sector in 2015/16, he added.