Determined efforts needed to bring economy back on track: Naidu

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu onSaturday said while vaccines do offer hope of shielding peoplefrom COVID-19, determined efforts are needed to bring thecountry's economic growth back on track.

Naidu was speaking at Goa Legislators' Day event inPorvorim near here, in presence of Governor B S Koshyari,Speaker of Legislative Assembly Rajesh Patnekar, ChiefMinister Pramod Sawant among others.

''India and the world are passing through difficulttimes with the COVID-19 pandemic compounding the situationcaused by the economic slide that was unfolding even earlier,''the Vice President said.

''Vaccines do offer the hope of shielding people fromthe disease, but return to the potential economic growthtrajectory calls for determined efforts,'' he said.

The Centre has been undertaking a series of reformsto unleash the growth potential since only a robust economicgrowth can help meet the aspirations of people, Naidu said.

Legislators across the country need to seriouslyreflect on the challenging situation that the country isfacing and mount a national effort to come out of it at theearliest, Naidu added.

The Vice President further said that while the year2020 had gotten off to a notorious start with the COVID-19outbreak, people have ushered in this new year with a sense ofhope, with scientists from the country and world coming outwith vaccines.

Last year, India rose to the occasion as onecollective entity in handling the pandemic with considerableresults, Naidu said.

Given the state of the health infrastructure in thecountry, the demographic conditions and socio-economicinequalities, India was expected to be severely impacted interms of caseload, mortalities and consequences, he said.

''However, due to the national resolve demonstrated, wecould contain the scale of damage remarkably and it is beingacknowledged both within and outside the country,'' the VicePresident added.