The economy is showing signs of turnaround, but the sentiment that nothing has changed on the ground is very much there, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya said today.
The comments assume significance as they come from the first chief of newly constituted body NITI Aayog, which replaced the decades-old Planning Commission in a flagship initiative of the Narendra Modi government.
"The sentiment that nothing has changed on the ground is very much there. See lots of indicators, we can see the difference. We see inflation is down, current account deficit is very down, fiscal deficit is under control. The growth last year was 7.4 per cent. Turn around is there," Panagariya said during a conference on 'Building India: A Shared Responsibility' at the CII Annual Session here.
He, however, also said it will take some time before major results show up as there is a new government which came with a lot of promises.
"Narasimha Rao brought reforms, Atal Bihari Vajpayee did reforms. Lots of reforms have been done under NDA-I. At the end of the day, it was in 2003-04, after a very long leg, ...Let us see the results in a big way," Panagariya said.
"It takes time, you have to persist, because populism has a much easier way to win," he said.
His comments follow Parliamentary and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu asking the industry yesterday to "have some patience".
"Today when I am trying to push certain reforms, I have to go carefully. Take the people along with me and others also...And then only I can move forward. This is the system, this is the constitution," Naidu had said
"So please understand. Have some patience, this government is only nine months old," he had said.
"In nine months, normally, one starts walking but this government is running. Prime Minister Modi is practically running. He wants actions, reforms and development," he said.
Earlier, eminent banker Deepak Parekh had said that impatience has begun creeping in among businessmen as nothing has changed on ground in the first nine months of the Modi-led government.
