War and unrest should be avoided, global priority is to restore normalcy: External Affairs Minister Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday stressed the need to restore normalcy in the world and highlighted the cost of the war that has caused supply chain disruptions and rising inflation globally.

“There can in no way be a sufficient justification for skirmishes or war. I believe that the first effort that constitutes the global priority in this decade must be to restore normalcy. Talk, sit down and discuss. War must be avoided,” she said at the World Economic Policy Forum. 2024 organized by the International Investment Institute: “Disruptions must be avoided.”

The Minister further emphasized that everyone, including industry, government, policy makers, citizens and citizen forums, must try to restore normalcy across the world.
“They (wars) are the main cause of supply chain disruptions. “They are the main cause of disruptions in food value chains,” she said, stressing that inflation is the biggest challenge globally that does not “respect borders” and that no country can address alone.

“I think the main reason is turmoil, skirmishes and war, and as a result, the world is facing a challenge that is reflected in many ways in our economies,” the minister said.

She also noted that the industry will have to realign its policies keeping in mind the country’s political and strategic decisions. To address supply chain disruptions, Sitharaman said there was now a need to blend economic priorities with policy and strategic needs.

She also urged the industry to work with small and medium units to see how they can support large units as much as they support job creation. “The problem today is not economic success, which is just production, but also economic success that can spread benefits to those waiting for jobs and wages,” she said, adding that it would be easy through technology.

The Finance Minister also stressed that another decade-long priority must be for countries to be responsible for borrowing and managing their debt. “Intergenerational debt is piling up on countries… Responsible economies cannot be run with loans so large that the next generation and the generation after that already know what they are responsible for paying back…,” she said, adding that the priority should be: to manage… Finance and borrowing to build assets.

While India also borrowed more during the Covid-19 pandemic, it said the government remained “highly aware” of the fact that it could not burden future generations with unsustainable debt.