Union Finance Minister discharged from AIIMS

Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance, and Corporate Affairs Minister was discharged from AIIMS today. Ms. Sitharaman arrived at AIIMS on December 26 with symptoms of viral fever and was admitted to the hospital’s private ward for a routine check-up. The hospitalization of the 63-year-old minister comes at a critical time, as the nation’s budget is only a month away.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was in Chennai on Saturday for the 35th annual convocation of The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University. The Finance Minister stated that medical education in Tamil Nadu should be taught in Tamil because there is a clear need to strengthen it. On Sunday, she paid floral tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at ‘Sadaiv Atal’ in New Delhi on his birth anniversary.

Last week, Sitharaman addressed Parliament on the issue of inflation, stating that the government is keeping an eye on price rises, which she described as “extraneous” due to fuel and fertiliser prices.

Responding to a Rajya Sabha debate on Supplementary Demands for Grants, she stated that wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation has fallen to a 21-month low. Retail inflation also fell to a 10-month low of 5.88 percent in November 2022, after remaining above the RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6%.

Sitharaman further said that due to various PLI schemes initiated by the Centre, private investment Capex is rising in the country. She further said that the supplementary demand for grants is essential for food security, fertiliser requirements, and for providing support to the economy. Sitharaman also informed the upper House that the gross NPAs of banks fell to a six-year low of 5.9 per cent in March 2022. She said the government’s strategy to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic helped in reviving economic growth, thus avoiding recessionary trends.