India's economy firing well as we are recovering from COVID: Jaishankar at Dubai Expo
Nov 13, 2021
Dubai [UAE], November 13 : India's economy is firing well and the trade figures are in the upward trajectory as the country is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.
"There are two parallel processes going on across the world. One is the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and another is the recovery of the economy. Both are resilient in different forms," Jaishankar said while interacting with mediapersons at the India Pavilion at the Dubai Expo 2020.
The minister also emphasised that the next two months or years will really indicate which has been more resilient.
"At least for India, we have now crossed 100 crore vaccine shots. The pace is continuing, there is the confidence that in the next few weeks and months, most of the eligible people will get their two shots," the EAM said while talking about the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
Jaishankar stressed that it will leave "us hopefully in a good place".
He also emphasised that the "growth is back" underlining that at the same time, there is every sign that the country's "economy is firing well".
"I would say we are well poised and, part of the reason we are well poised is that a lot of efforts were made in building capacities to handle the COVID, not just hospital capacities, ventilators, masks and even the vaccine was part of the capacity building," Jaishankar said.
"There was a lot of debate last year that how do you financially respond to it (COVID-19)," he said, adding, "I think, we managed our resources well, we intervened in the right manner at the right time. So that we recovered in a responsible way."
Stressing that the recovery has created more optimism in India, the external affairs minister said:
"It is already being reflected in our trade figures, this year may be actually our best year in trade. So the trade recovery has been very strong.
"We don't think it is just the end of the demand, it will continue to remain strong," he added.
