Before his presentation, Arshad Shaikh, Media In-charge, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, displayed the pictures of the period of demonetisation to highlight the pain, suffering and struggle of the people and images of protest after implementation of GST to reveal the anger and anxiety of the people.
While speaking on “Slowing Indian Economy: Causes and Solutions,” Arshad Shaikh explained the causes of the slowing down of the Indian economy and suggested measures to meet the present challenges. Before going into the details of the factors involved in crippling the growth of the Indian economy, he said India’s economy grew at its slowest pace for three years in the April-to-June quarter of 2017 and for the period between April and June 2017 Indian GDP grew by just 5.7 per cent as against 9.1 per cent in 2016. He also explained the declining trend in the industry, banking woes, employment challenges and poverty in order to present the real picture of economy.
While speaking at the weekly meet organised by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind at its headquarters on 14 September, Shaikh outlined the factors like demonetisation, GST, RBI’s Real Effective Exchange Rate, Debt Servicing, Ease of Business, Tax Compliance, Entrepreneurship, and Corruption to explain their respective roles in one way or the other for the slow growth pace of the economy.
According to him, the solutions that can help meet the challenges are land and labour reform, stimulating with more loans, spending more forget ratings, keeping fiscal deficit on the right pace, the dirty banks need to revive stalled projects, RBI-Repo Rate, Cutting interest rate and providing financing and stable business environment. He also cautioned the government against the next oil shocks.
Apart from conventional method, he also suggested Islamic solutions. According to him, there is no country where the total economy is based on Islamic finance but surely it is emerging as the potential alternate. He asked the countries in economic mess presently to try Islamic solutions. It is the need of the hour, he emphasised.
The Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Dr. Muhammad Salim Engineer, in his reflection, said, “Instead of trying to find employment we should make all effort to generate employment. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind is also trying to create entrepreneurs and for that matter a chapter has also been formed in Maharashtra. He asked the Muslims to create employment for many rather than looking for self-employment.”