india

Updated: Jun 28, 2020 17:19 IST

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi attacked the government on Thursday over the economic slowdown and said that acknowledging the problem at hand was important.

“What India needs isn’t propaganda, manipulated news cycles & foolish theories about millennials, but a concrete plan to #FixTheEconomy that we can all get behind,” Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Rahul Gandhi’s remarks came days after finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the slowdown in the auto sector was due to many factors, including the changing mindset of the millenials. She said millennials preferring taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber could be one of the reasons for plunging car sales.

The Indian economy is seeing a slowdown with the gross domestic product (GDP) growth dipping to 5% in the quarter ended June. This is the slowest pace or growth since March 2013, when GDP expanded 4.7%. The government is facing challenges on multiple fronts in the economy. There has been a sluggish demand, slowing private investment and the automobile sector is witnessing a crisis.

Watch: FM Nirmala Sitharaman on economy: ‘Meeting industries, taking inputs’

Union minister Prakash Javadekar had said there is no need to panic on the economy and India is on a strong footing and heading towards achieving the target of becoming $ 5 trillion economy by 2024. He also said slow down is a cyclic process, fundamentals of Indian economy so strong, not being disturbed.

The passenger vehicle industry suffered its worst-ever monthly sales performance in August. Sales of domestic passenger vehicles plunged 31.6% to 196,524 units from a year earlier.

Sitharaman had announced some measures to revive growth and boost the economy. The measures included rolling back the surcharge on tax on foreign portfolio investors (FPIs), upfront recapitalisation of state-owned banks and steps to boost demand in the automobile industry. She also announced mega mergers of ten state-run banks into four financial behemoths.