‘Decade... was lost to statism’: FM Sitharaman highlights UPI & infrastructure shift

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the C.D. Deshmukh Lecture at NCAER in Delhi that "technology in a democratic country has actually helped in 'Garibi Hatao'" through initiatives like UPI, the Golden Quadrilateral and the telecom revolution, and that "the success of the small entrepreneur" via digital payments has benefited the economy. She also said "a decade which began with promise was lost to statism again" after 2008 due to widening fiscal deficit and high inflation, and noted early India built institutions like "ISRO, BARC, BHEL, and the IITs" with global collaboration but faced slow implementation and dependence on the USA and Soviet Union.