 "Nirmala Sitharaman")
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has convened a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) on Tuesday to discuss about the state of the financial sector and revival strategy for the economy that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
It will be the second time that the FSDC, whose members include RBI Governor and other regulatory heads, will be meeting since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. The earlier meeting was held in May soon after the government announcedthe mega Rs 21 lakh crore-Aatmanirbhar Bharat package.
The meeting also comes ahead of the Union Budget for the next financial year and the finance ministry has already started discussions with various stakeholders as part of preparations for the Budget.
The FSDC meeting, to be chaired by the finance minister, will be held via video conferencing on Tuesday, sources said.
Chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India, and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority are also members of the FSDC.
Also Read
Senior officials from the finance ministry will also attend the meeting.
The FSDC is expected to review various aspects associated with the three tranches Aatmanirbhar Bharat package announced by the government to tide over the economic crisis induced by the pandemic.
The 2021-22 Union Budget will spell out the road map for the growth strategy for the next financial year. As per various estimates, India is expected to record a growth of 8 per cent in 2021-22.
The economy contracted 23.9 per cent in June quarter of the current fiscal on account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. In the second quarter, the contraction was 7.5 per cent.
Last week, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) upgraded its forecast for the Indian economy, projecting 8 per cent contraction in 2020-21 as compared to 9 per cent degrowth estimated earlier.
Earlier this month, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said the economy is recuperating faster than anticipated and growth rate is likely to turn positive in the second half of the current financial year.
In 2020-21, the economy is likely to contract 7.5 per cent, which is an improvement over the RBI's previous projection of 9.5 per cent contraction, Das had said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
