Sitharaman to meet representatives of various sectors during this week

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said she will meet representatives of various sectors and "fairly quickly" come out with steps to help them. Sitharaman, who on Monday met the heads of public and private sector banks, is scheduled to hold similar meetings during the week with representatives of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) and automobile sectors, industry chambers, markets, real estate and homebuyers.

"Essential idea behind these meetings is to hear from them and fairly quickly after that come up with something which will help those sectors which are giving their views to us," she told reporters in a press conference. The minister's statement assumes significance as key indicators pointing are towards a slowdown, and the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank have cut India's growth forecast, citing global and domestic headwinds.

"We are getting inputs from various sectors and trying to respond, so that confidence of those sectors being restored," Sitharaman said. According to the Central Statistics Office, GDP growth during 2018-19 stood at 6.8 per cent, lower than 7.2 per cent in the previous financial year.

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