Focus on propping up demand helped India's quick recovery: Govt

HYDERABAD: India's fast recovery from the global slowdown was owing to the stimulus packages by the Centre that focused on bolstering domestic and not on rescuing industry, a top official said.

"The entire economic stimulus package was based on strengthening demand and not to bail out industry. We worked out on demand side by cutting the excise duty, lowering interest rates to provide more liquidity into the market. The whole purpose was that demand builds up," Union Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar said.

He was delivering the 24th Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Memorial Lecture at the National Police Academy here.

"The strength of India is domestic market. All the work done in rural areas in the past few years was to strengthen domestic markets. And you can see that today we have pulled ourselves out of the woods," he said.

"It is possible (to overcome crisis) if we are able to think clearly, act in time, and collectively," the Cabinet Secretary said.

The industry also came strongly to our support and it appreciated not only the measures that were taken by the government but also the speed at which they were implemented, he added.