Government doesn\'t agree with Dr Singh\'s analysis of economy: Javadekar

New Delhi: After former prime minister Manmohan Singh criticised the government for “all-round mismanagement” of the economy, the centre on Tuesday dismissed the comments saying it does not subscribe to his analysis as India has now become the world’s fifth-largest economy from 11th during his time.

“We do not subscribe to what Manmohan Singh has analysed…India was 11th (largest) economy of the world. Now it is fifth and we are marching to be third,” I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar said during a press conference. He was responding to a question over Singh’s comments regarding the economy, T he Indian Express reported.

“What we are doing is, being a responsive government, addressing the issues and we have seen this process in GST also. The GST Council met every month and took relevant decisions and it is now fine-tuned. This is how the people-friendly government works and that is how we are working,” he said.

Expressing his disappointment over the state of Indian economy, Dr Singh, in a video, said, “The state of the economy today is deeply worrying. The last quarter’s GDP growth rate of 5% signals that we are in the midst of a prolonged slowdown. India has the potential to grow at a much faster rate but all-round mismanagement by the Modi government has resulted in this slowdown.”

Data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) Friday revealed that the country’s GDP grew at 5 per cent, a 25-quarter low, in the first quarter (April-June) of the current fiscal. Besides a sub-1 per cent growth in the manufacturing sector and weak agricultural growth, the slowdown was led by a visible collapse of consumption demand, evident from the tepid 3.1 per cent growth in private final consumption expenditure — an 18-quarter low.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh expressed concerns over the state of the Indian economy.

“Our economy has not recovered from the man-made blunders of demonetisation & a hastily implemented GST… I urge the govt to put aside vendetta politics & reach out to all sane voices to steer our economy out of this crisis,” Singh had said.

Last month Finance Minister Sitharaman had announced a slew of measures to curb the economic downturn including a recapitalisation plan of Rs 70000 crore and mega bank mergers to drive the economy towards the target of $5 trillion.