The COVID-19 pandemic-induced economic turbulence, along with measures to curb its outbreak, heavily dented India's economy and the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth contracted by -23.9 per cent during the first quarter (Q1) of 2020-21 on a year-on-year basis.
According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at 'Constant (2011-12) Prices' in Q1 of 2020-21 is estimated at Rs 26.90 lakh crore, as against Rs 35.35 lakh crore in Q1 of 2019-20, showing a decline of 23.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya's old tweet over GDP growth has gone viral on Tuesday and Twitterati are trolling him over the same.
In the 2013 tweet, Malviya had written, "To become a developed country, India’s GDP will have to grow at 12 per cent a year for at least a decade."
"Congratulations Amit, We've doubled it for this quarter. But in negative," said Alt News' co-founder Mohammed Zubair.
"You should congratulate Modi for achieving 2x what you said with a small change (negative sign). You should be very proud....," wrote another Twitter user.
Here are a few Twitter reactions:
Meanwhile, the Congress attacked the Central Government soon after the GDP growth plunged. Addressing a virtual press conference, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said that it will take months for India's economy to register positive growth.
The former finance minister said that the decline meant that "about one quarter of the gross domestic output as on June 30, 2019, has been wiped out in the last 12 months. Another way of looking at it is, since the end of 2019-20, the gross domestic output has fallen by about 20 per cent."
He pointed out that agriculture, forestry and fishing are the only sectors which have grown in the quarter while a "sharp decline" has been noticed in manufacturing, construction, trade, hotels, and transport among others.
(With input from agencies)
