He spoke at the inaugural event of the Advancing Asia Summit, being jointly organised by his ministry and the International Monetary Fund. The three-day event features Prime Minister Narendra Modi, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and other dignitaries. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde donned a bright Indian salwar suit at the start of a high-level conference on Friday.
Jaitley who was co-panelist at the event, commented on her liking of Indian cloths and food. “As most of the friends present here can see (her) fondness for Indian clothes along with the fondness for Indian foods,” he said. “I am certain you will be quite comfortable in India for next couple of days.”
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday morning address the conference that is to take stock of Asia’s strong economic performance, its increased resilience to shocks, and the region's ongoing economic policy challenges. The government’s pending legislation includes Bills on bankruptcy rules and a constitutional amendment on a national goods and services tax.
“We have been trying to do our best, notwithstanding the global environment being extremely difficult and challenging,” Jaitley said. “The challenge is how to keep the reform momentum on the one hand, take the best advantage of areas where we are doing reasonably well and then putting a large part of our national resource in areas where we are lacking.”