Addressing students at the Shri Ram College of Commerce in New Delhi, the former finance minister also said that the country was heading towards another "listless" year in terms of economic growth. Pointing out that the government has itself set a "pessimistic" target of 10 per cent nominal growth, Chidambaram said the real growth would at best be around five per cent. Chidambaram said most importantly the economy was demand-constrained which was also pulling down investment and needed to be vitalized. He said one way of putting money in the hands of the people was to put more money in schemes such as MGNREGA and PM-KISAN. But, unfortunately the government has announced cuts in the budget of such schemes for the next fiscal, he said.

Source: The Telegraph February 05, 2020 08:03 UTC