A long road ahead

Govt needs to do much more to shore up economic growth

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to win the perception battle about the state of the economy by brushing aside growing criticism in several quarters, including from some within his own party, about the slowdown. The criticism became more intense after the gross domestic product growth rate for the first quarter of the current fiscal year came in at 5.7 per cent. Many have claimed that the shock of demonetisation in November and the hurried introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) in July are the key reasons why the economy has not been able to recover from the