Parliament Diary

Legislation/ Policy

Current Status

Macroeconomy

GDP growth has made India the world’s fastest growing economies among large economies. 

Foreign exchange reserves have been at an all-time high, and inflation, current account deficit and fiscal deficit have consistently reduced since 2014.

The GDP is estimated to grow at 7.1% in 2016-17, compared to its growth of 7.9% in 2015-16.

The Economic Survey 2016-17 has stated the GDP growth to be between 6.75% and 7.5% in 2017-18.

The average CPI inflation declined from 5.6% in December 2015 to 3.4% in December 2016. In the same period, food inflation also decreased from 6.4% from 1.4%.

Current account deficit decreased from USD 14.7 billion in 2015-16 (April-September) to USD 3.7 billion in the corresponding period in 2016-17.

Foreign exchange reserves presently stand at Rs 24,54,950 crore, an increase of Rs 1,02,130 crore from 2016.

Poverty eradication and financial inclusion

The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched to provide universal access to banking facilities.  The coverage under the scheme is close to 100%. 

The proposed Postal Payment Bank of India will further boost financial inclusion.

Presently, around 27 crore accounts have been opened under the scheme.However, out of these, 25% of the accounts are zero balance accounts.

 The Indian Postal Payments Bank has started.The postal network with over 1.5 lakh post offices will also function as postal banks.