Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that India’s economy recovered more strongly as compared to the impact it suffered due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

He said that when big economies of the world were busy defending themselves during the pandemic, India was engaged in reforms. ”COVID-19 affected the economies of the entire world, including that of India. But our economy has recovered more strongly than it was halted by the pandemic,” Modi said while virtually addressing a gathering after inaugurating Sardhardham Bhavan here, a complex for providing training to job aspirants.

”When big economies of the world were busy defending themselves during the pandemic, we were carrying out reforms. When the global supply chains were disrupted, we introduced the PLI (production-linked incentive) scheme to turn new opportunities in favour of India,” Modi said. This scheme has been extended to the textile sector now, he said, adding that the textile sector and cities like Surat can take maximum benefit of the scheme.

As per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday, India’s economic growth surged to 20.1 per cent in the April-June quarter of this fiscal, helped by a low base of the year-ago period, despite a devastating second wave of COVID-19. The gross domestic product (GDP) had contracted by 24.4 percent in the corresponding April-June quarter of 2020-21.

The PLI scheme announced for 10 key sectors, including textile and automobiles by the Centre, is aimed at helping the country’s economy recover faster after the pandemic. ”We should look upon ourselves as global economic leader as in the 21st century, India does not have a scarcity of opportunities to make it big,” Modi said.

(Edited by : Anshul)

First Published:Sept 11, 2021 4:17 PM IST