People from many industries are coming to us and saying they are out of distress: Nirmala Sitharaman

NEW DELHI: The government’s measures are beginning to show results, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman tells Sidhartha, Surojit Gupta & Rajeev Deshpande in an exclusive interview. Bank balance sheets are better, lending is improving and NBFCs are back in business. Excerpts…

What is the impact of several measures taken by the government and your assessment of the economy?

We are clearly responding to things as they develop. The usual sanctity about fiscal measures being attached to the Budget, and therefore waiting for the next Budget, was not at all a consideration. We didn’t hesitate to announce measures in between. Second, even for assessments in the private sector’s domain, we didn’t hesitate in getting them to understand (that) if there is anything that the government can do, we will.