 "Kamal Nath")
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath Wednesday referred Gross domestic product (GDP), as a "fancy figure" and said that economic growth must translate into well being of people on ground.
At a session on the emerging market outlook at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2019, Nath also strongly defended his government's farm loan waiver decision and said the agricultural sector in India and particularly in his state has been in distress.
Referring to the latest IMF forecast for Indian economy, he said, "GDP is a fancy figure and at times it can be misleading as one needs to see where all a 7.5 per cent growth figure translates into".
Defending the loan waiver, the Congress leader, who also had a long stint in central government in various ministries, said it was very necessary as agriculture is a backbone of the Indian economy and he had to take into account the distress the farmers were in.
He said, the waiver amounts to $8 billion, but what it amounts to is taking over the loans of scheduled banks that had gone bad and the lenders have taken a haircut in the process.
Anyway, an NPA would have hit the balance sheet of the banks and the decision was in their interest also, Nath said.
Talking about the global economic scenario, he said the global order is getting changed.
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