Cabinet expansion will improve focus on economy: CII

As Prime Minister expanded Cabinet to speed up economic reforms, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has stated that the ministry-expansion will help improve the focus on economic recovery. The CII president Ajay Shriram has asserted that at a time when the economy is recovering, it is important to fast-track policies to strengthen the growth and the latest government move of induction of new ministers will streamline governance and bring in new ideas for the economic reforms process. The CII President further stated that business sentiment in the country is picking up since the new government took over. Further, ministerial expansion will support faster decision-making, efficient administration and faster clearances to ensure new investments. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 9 added 21 new ministers to speed up economic reforms. The strength of the Union Council of Ministers goes up from 45 to 66 of which, 27 including the Prime Minister are of Cabinet rank, 13 Ministers of State with Independent Charge and 26 Ministers of State. Indian economic had been struggling with slowdown over the past two fiscal and its growth stayed below 5% for the second fiscal in a row at 4.7% during FY14. The factors like high interest rate and stubborn inflation, low investments and slow execution of infrastructure projects have impacted country’s economy growth.  However, the economy has shown signs of nascent recovery and expanded at its fastest pace in more than two years by 5.7% during Q1FY15 as compared to 4.7% growth recorded in same quarter last year.