Modi government at four years: It has pushed through a range of structural reforms whose results will show
Abstract:
Progress in reforms is like the movement of the hour hand of the clock: human eye is unable to detect the movement in it and yet it has gone full circle twice a day. While naysayers complain that they can see no progress in reforms, reforms in the past four years have accumulated to the point that only highlights can fit a newspaper column.
During the last two full fiscal years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, inflation had averaged 9.7% and growth 5.9%. To address inflation, the new government adopted inflation targeting on the monetary front and a strict fiscal consolidation plan on the fiscal front. To address growth, it undertook numerous structural reforms. The result has been an average inflation rate of 4.3% and GDP growth of 7.3% during the past four years.
Governance has been a key focus of the government. The government’s concerted efforts towards improving the ease of doing business have translated into India jumping from 140th to 100th position in the World Bank rankings. In parallel, the government has worked to improve the ease of living. Citizens no longer need to have copies of degrees and diplomas certified by a Gazetted Officer; they may store soft copies of their degrees and diplomas in DigiLocker; and they may access many central and state services online through portal Umang. Forty million BPL households have received LPG connections under Ujjwala Yojana.