New Delhi, Feb. 28: At a time when several major economies are saddled with high public debt, widening fiscal deficits and inflationary pressures, India has emerged as a model of prudence and stability, Shaktikanta Das, former RBI Governor and Principal Secretary to the Indian Prime Minister, said Saturday.

While global economic order is shifting under the weight of volatility, the Indian economy presents a picture of resilience and stability, he said.

“Today, India is not just reacting to the world. We are influencing its future direction and shape,” Das said.

“In a world where many nations are struggling with inflationary pressures and widening fiscal gaps, India’s approach stands out as a model of prudence and stability. A key marker of this fiscal stability is the improved quality of expenditure,” he said. “This has happened not by chance. It is indeed the result of surgically precise interventions by the government of India and I would also like to add the Reserve Bank of India in the immediate aftermath of the Covid pandemic,” Das said in his keynote address at the Business Today Banking and Economy Summit.

On the ongoing war involving the US and Israel with Iran, he said, “We are living in an era of geopolitical shifts more so given the events which have taken place since this morning. So this is an era of geopolitical shifts, rapid economic change, technological disruption and evolving expectations.”

The IMF has underscored this fragility noting that risks to global growth outlook remain firmly tilted to the downside, Das said.

Compounding this challenge is a possible tightening of financial conditions led by high public debt and widening fiscal deficits across several major economies, he said.

India undertook calibrated fiscal and monetary expansion which were rolled back in time and ensured that undesirable cholesterol was not built up in the financial systems, Das said.

“This was something unique among countries. As a result, the Indian economy has emerged much stronger after the pandemic. In fact, in the post- pandemic period, nearly one-sixth of global real GDP growth has come from India, thus establishing India firmly as one of the primary engines of global economic expansion,” he said.-Agencies