Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee calls for a stricter fiscal discipline for speedy economic growth …

Kolkata, Jan 28 (HS): Nobel laureate in Economics Abhijit Binayak Banerjee feels that the most critical period of the Indian economy is now ‘almost over’ and has underscored the need for a strict fiscal discipline by the government to bounce back into a regime of speedy growth.

Speaking a function here last night on his arrival in Kolkata in a ‘brief holiday’, the world-renowned economist said, however, in order to ensure the desired growth of economy of around 7 percent and above, there was a need for an all growth in infrastructure as well as in the banking sector among others.

In this connection, he welcomed the Modi Government’s decision to pump in a total of Rs 102 lakh crores in infrastructural sector in phases and said it was also the responsibility of the government to see that the huge amount of money was ‘well spent and thoughtfully disbursed’ among those sectors which required the most of funding.

About the announcement of Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman regarding the merger of ten public sector banks into four from April this year after the amalgamation of SBI last year, Banerjee said the proper results of this step would be known after a few months since the amalgamation process within SBI and its subsidiaries was not very successful in terms of their growth in profits.

Asked about his work regarding the condition of poor in developing countries, Banerjee said it was very unfortunate that in spite of all-out efforts the gap between the rich and poor in almost every country across the globe was widening with most of the wealthy and developed nations like the USA  refusing to change their stance.

“I have tried to draw the attention of people in this critical area and explain the current situation from the point of view of my latest book,” which would be released in the Kolkata International Book Fair today by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the Nobel prize winner said and hoped that a brighter future awaited the humanity was not so distant future.