India’s economic resilience built through a decade of reforms:FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India’s economic strength and resilience have been built over the past decade through a combination of fiscal prudence, infrastructure investment, banking reforms, improved delivery mechanisms and consistent reforms. Addressing the 5th Kautilya economic conclave in New Delhi on Saturday, the Finance Minister said that the government has advanced the national frameworks through GST, insolvency and bankruptcy code and the four labour codes. She said that India had navigated the shocks of the past four years with its fundamentals intact, citing 7.8 percent real GDP growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026-27. 

Since 2014, we have worked to strengthen the capacities on which sustained development depends: the State’s capacity to respond, the economy’s capacity to produce, and the ability of citizens and enterprises to participate in growth. The focus has been on efficient ‘Last-Mile Delivery’. The first foundation is strengthening resilience at the household level. This has been done by translating public expenditure and government initiatives into tangible improvements in people’s lives. The use of transparent mechanisms, strict monitoring and a zeal to deliver ensured that government schemes get delivered on the ground. - Smt @nsitharaman at the Kautilya Economic Conclave 2026

— Nirmala Sitharaman Office (@nsitharamanoffc) October 3, 2026

The Finance Minister said that the IMF projects India’s general government debt to decline from 83.4 percent of GDP in 2026 to 77.7 percent in 2031 against a rising global trend. On infrastructure development, Ms Sitharaman said, capital expenditure for this fiscal had been budgeted at 12.22 lakh crore rupees. She added that the national highway network had expanded by about 61 per cent and the number of operational airports had more than doubled since 2014.