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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said India continues to maintain the momentum of the fastest-growing major economy, with all sectors contributing significantly in economic activities.

Replying to a short-duration discussion on the state of the economy in the Rajya Sabha, the minister also highlighted the various achievements of the Modi government since May 2014.

“The second quarter growth was very high, it is the highest in the world. We continuously maintain that momentum of being the fastest-growing economy,” Sitharaman said.

She further said that in just the last eight years, India has become the fifth largest economy from the 10th in 2014.

“The activities are all across the economy. It’s not as if one sector is doing well…All sectors are growing and growing significantly for us to notice it,” she said.

She emphasised that the manufacturing sector is also contributing significantly to the economy on the back of measures taken by the government, including the Make-In-India programme and production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

India is the second most sought-after manufacturing destination in world, she added.

The finance minister further informed the House that direct tax collection grew by 21.82% this year till November 9 and monthly GST collections have stabilised at Rs 1.6 lakh crore in a sign of economic growth.

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Dismissing assertions on the employment front, Sitharaman said the unemployment rate has declined to 10% from 17.8% in 2017-18.

She further said 13.5 crore people have come out of ‘multi-dimensional’ poverty in the last five years.

Several Opposition members also raised concerns over the rising prices in the country.

To this, the minister replied that the government has taken “quite a few” measures to check inflation.

The retail inflation based on the consumer price index (CPI) had touched a high of 7.8% in April 2022. However, now it has been close to the Reserve Bank‘s target of 4%.