Bengaluru:

If we want to build ‘Brand Bharat’ we should not listen to the diktats of the west regarding what is right, said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday at the India Ideas Conclave 2024 in Bengaluru.

“For millennia, we’ve been producing products, there’s never been this point of exploitation. And suddenly for a traditional industry like, let’s say, carpet making, you had a diktat coming from the buyers in the West saying, Oh, no, you’re using children for making these carpets. We won’t buy it from you,” said Ms Sitharaman.

She said in India, families are engaged in making crafts, without denying children the schooling, because unless the craft is learnt very young, a craftsman can never master it.

“We’ve not denied children education…. you are not going to be told by others, you employ children. We need to stand up and say, we take care of their education,” said Ms Sitharaman.

The kind of steps that need to be taken for better ethical production, which would make products superior, should come from us, and not be issued as western diktats, she added.

Ms Sitharaman also said while envisioning a better Bharath, our temples and our iconic tourist centres will have to be a lot more than what they are right now.

“They should be handled with a perspective that this is where India’s image is being projected. We need better servicing, better catering, better tourist guides and better immersive experience… for that, today’s technology being what it is, it is possible to build a better and immersive experience,” she added.

She also said that it is important to convey to people that India’s strength in science has been unbroken since ancient times.

Ms Sitharaman said India has a rich repertoire of knowledge to refer to, thanks to ancient texts such as ‘Sushruta Samhita’.

“But are they just going to be referred to occasionally? Don’t we want people to know what these are. These are brands for ancient India, which we refer to even today,” she added.

According to Ms Sitharaman, the global talking points of today, such as sustainability and circular economy were once woven in the fabric of our existence. She said much before the west went ‘vocal for local’, India was doing it.

“The point, ‘don’t ask, sitting here, for salmon from Scotland’ is very well taken, but that was part of India. Most of us ate the food which was available within your immediate neighbourhood. We didn’t live like that because of our poverty. We lived like that because that was our lifestyle,” she said.

Quoting Leo Tolstoy, she reiterated that it has always been that the Indians who have enslaved themselves to the diktats of the west and insisted that we change our lifestyles and thinking to build ‘Brand Bharath’.

The eighth India Ideas Conclave, organised by India Foundation, an independent research centre focused on the issues, challenges and opportunities of the Indian polity, is being held in Bengaluru which will conclude on November 24.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Presenting her seventh straight budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said Andhra Pradesh will get support of Rs 15,000 crore to develop its capital. TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, is a key ally of the BJP, which is dependent on NDA constituents this time to reach the majority mark in the Lok Sabha. 

The announcement meets a key demand of the state government, which had, in the pre-budget meeting, sought a grant of Rs 15,000 crore for the construction and development of Amaravati as the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh.

Presenting the budget, Ms Sitharaman said the Centre recognises Andhra Pradesh’s need for a capital and will facilitate support through multi-lateral development agencies

“Government to arrange Rs 15,000 crore this fiscal and in future years for the development of capital city of Andhra Pradesh,” she said. 

After Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated into the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in 2014, Hyderabad was announced as the common capital of the states for 10 years under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. On June 2 this year, the city ceased to be the capital of Andhra Pradesh. 

Days later, on June 11, Mr Naidu announced even before taking oath as the chief minister that Amaravati would be the sole capital of the state and there would not be three capitals as proposed by the previous YSR Congress Party government under Jagan Mohan Reddy. The three proposed cities were Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, Amaravati as the legislative capital and Kurnool as the judicial capital.

Mr Naidu had said Visakhapatnam would be developed as the financial capital of the state. 

The Andhra Pradesh chief minister, who is leading an NDA government in the state, had also met Home Minister Amit Shah last week and pushed for a “substantial fund allocation” in the Union Budget to address the state’s financial challenges.

He had emphasised that Andhra Pradesh continues to face the aftermath of the “unjust bifurcation” in 2014 and the previous administration’s “miserable governance,” sources had told news agency PTI. 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Rajya Sabha on February 6, 2024. Photo: Sansad TV via ANI

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 6 said inflation has come down within the tolerance band as a result of the steps taken by the government to check price rise, especially in perishable commodities.

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Ms. Sitharaman said Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is working with the government on de-humidification of onions through Gamma Rays to give it a longer shelf life.

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“The government is seized of the difficulties, which arise due to shortage of perishable goods, which are not grown in India. The committee sits and reviews periodically, and the efforts have shown on the ground that inflation is now within the tolerable band,” she said.

India’s retail inflation has declined from an average of 6.8% in April-December 2022 to 5.5% in the corresponding period of 2023. The retail inflation is now stable and within the notified tolerance band of 2% to 6%.

The Minister said that in order to check the volatility in prices of onion, the government has progressively increased its buffer size from 1 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) in 2020-21 to 7 LMT in 2023-24. As of February 3, 2024, a total of 6.32 LMT of onion was procured, and 3.96 LMT of Grade-A onion was released through retail sales, e-Nam auction and bulk sales.

Also Read | Centre monitoring inflation at ground level, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

“Currently, steps are being taken so that the preservation of very highly perishable commodities, like onion, can be improved,” she said, adding lots of steps have been taken by the government, particularly for meeting the shortage in supply of perishable goods.

Ms. Sitharaman said India has imported 8.79 lakh metric tonnes of Tur Dal and 15.14 lakh metric tonnes of Masoor Dal in calendar year 2023. Similarly, the country imported other dals and released them in the market.

India has also brought the branded ‘Bharat Dal’ through which Chana Dal is made available at Rs 60/kg for one kg pack and Rs 55/kg for 30 kg packs. 2.97 lakh metric tonnes of Chana have been sold already as of January 30, 2024. ‘Bharat Dal’, which is coming at a concessional price, is available in all retail markets.

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“Since we don’t grow enough pulses in the country and due to a shortfall in supply, prices of pulses normally keep fluctuating, for which, by analysing the crop estimates, we start tying up for imports,” Ms. Sitharaman added.

Retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), in December 2023, stood at 5.69%.