Global supplies and logistical bottlenecks have impacted prices in India: Rajnath Singh

Addressing a workshop on capital markets, Rajnath said, "When the world was yet to recover from the supply chain disruptions and logistical bottlenecks caused by Covid-19, a new crisis emerged in the shape of Ukrainian conflict. Both countries are producers of important commodities and everyone knows this fact."

He said, "Russia is a major producer of food grains and hydrocarbons and Ukraine is a major producer of wheat. In such a situation, conflict between the two countries has affected the entire world and India is not an exception because today when we export hydrocarbon and oilseeds it has impacted prices in the country.

"Due to global supplies and logistical bottlenecks the core inflation has increased slightly and I admit the fact."

Rajnath said that Covid crisis and Ukrainian crisis have impacted the economy.

"Private consumption expenditure which declined due to Disturbances and uncertainties caused by Covid-19 has not recovered yet," he added.

Growth of contact based services like hotels and transport has slowed down and if you see neighbouring countries like Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and many other countries in the world are struggling a lot to meet these challenges," he further said.

To meet these challenges India has initiated steps and its results are becoming visible, Singh said.

"You must have seen surveys of many agencies which show that India is one of the fastest growing major economies and is progressing continuously. Our exports are creating records and there are possibilities of growing further," he said.

The Defence Minister said India has signed a free trade agreement with Australia and such agreements with other partner countries were in progress.

"The government is promoting domestic oil seed products and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also initiated a few steps to ease inflation results of which will be visible soon," he said.

Rajnath said the investments taking place at the global and domestic level would aid in reducing the existing pressure on the supply chain.

"The Prime Minister has introduced the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan of Rs 100 lakh crore which is India's long term response to remove logistical bottlenecks and disruption.

"To execute the masterplan we have envisioned an expenditure of Rs 100 lakh crore and we have not only announced it, but we have started implementing it," he said.

"Domestic demand is increasing expeditiously and our economy is recovering in a V shape," the senior BJP leader said.

Singh said government's focus on logistics and infrastructure, will help in getting rid of hurdles in the supply chain.

"Contact based services are gaining momentum which I consider as a good signal to bring the economy back on track," he said.