Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday said that India is one of the fastest growing global economies with 7 to 8 pc of economic growth and added that to cope with the challenges ahead we have to accelerate our growth at a higher pace.

At a time when world is passing through economic challenges, India has emerged as one of the fastest growing global economies, maintaining 7-8 pc economic growth.

However, Jaitley said this is not the time to be content with the present growth. Given the challenges of poverty and unemployment that the country is facing, we will have to achieve higher growth target.

Speaking at an interactive session in Pune on Saturday with top 150 invitees to discuss govt initiatives on economic front, the finance minister said NDA government has accelerated the economic growth in the last one and half years.

“That’s why public investment has increased substantially. However, we will have to go long way for the targeted private investment,” Jaitley said.

Earlier at a function in Baramati, the finance minister strongly pitched for the use of best agricultural techniques to increase productivity in the sector.

He said that agriculture contributes 15% to the national GDP and 55% of population is depended on it.

He also talked about progress made in Baramati district. NCP Chief Sarad Pawar hails from the town of Baramati in the Pune district of Maharashtra.

Jaitley also inaugurated the new building of the College of Agriculture and Allied science and also attend the renaming ceremony of the Vidya Pratishthan College of Engineering as Kamalnayan Bajaj Institute of Engineering and Technology, at Baramati.