By IANS,
New Delhi : Following are the highlights of Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s address Tuesday during the debate on the motion of confidence moved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh:
– India economic growth averaged 8.9 percent in past four years
– Growth rate pegged at 9.1 percent for 2007-08
– Growth during preceding six years under NDA rule was 5.8 percent
– Record food grain production of 230.7 million tonnes last fiscal
– Record farm credit of Rs.2,500 billion ($62.5 billion) extended
– Farm credit target of Rs.2,800 billion ($70 billion) for 2008-09
– Rural job guarantee scheme extended to all 597 rural districts of the country
– Farm debt relief and waiver worth Rs.664.77 billion ($16.7 billion) doled out
– Farm debt relief benefited 36,387,123 farmers (36.38 million) farmers
– India must aspire to become economic superpower and emulate China
– China’s rice yield 6.26 tonnes per hectare against India’s 2.1 tonnes
– China’s wheat yield 4.42 tonnes per hectare against India’s 2.72 tonnes
– China’s steel output 419 million tonnes against India’s 44 million tonnes
– China’s coal output 2,482 million tonnes against India’s 487 million tonnes
– China proposes six-fold increase in nuclear power generation
– China proposes 50,000 MW through nuclear power by 2020