india

Updated: Sep 19, 2019 13:43 IST

Playing on Prime Minister’s ‘Howdy, Modi’ event in the United States, which will also be attended by president Donald Trump, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi questioned the PM on the state of economy and asked ‘Howdy economy, Mr Modi?’.

The former Congress chief then appeared to answer the question himself when he declared: “Ain’t so good it seems.” Just a day before, the Wayanad MP, on Modi’s 69th birthday, wished the PM “good health and happiness always”.

The gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to 5% in the quarter ended June, the slowest pace of growth for India since March 2013 (4.7%). The GDP growth has been declining for five consecutive quarters now. This is only the first time since 1997 that India had five consecutive quarters of declining GDP growth.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das said he was surprised by the 5 per cent growth figure but expressed hope that things will improve soon as the government has announced a series of steps to arrest the slumping growth.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, in a third set of steps since the full budget was presented, announced a number of measures to give a fillip to exports and shore up the housing sector.

However, earlier while explaining the rationale for the slump in the automobile sector, the minister blamed the mindset of millennials and copped a lot of flak for it. Sitharaman found fault with the youth is not ready for the discipline one needs to commit to an EMI and thus they find it easier to use the services of ride hailing cabs like Ola and Uber.