India can clock higher growth with stable govt: Jaitley

With a stable and decisive government in place, it would be possible for India to exceed the growth rates of 8-9 per cent clocked during the previous UPA regime, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Monday.

"Even at the modest level of governance, we have grown at 8-9 per cent. With much better level of governance, I think we have capacity to break the deadline you are setting for," he said.

Jaitley was speaking at a function here to release a book -- 'Exploding Aspirations-Unlocking India's Future' -- by Rajiv Kumar.

The Minister said that in the new political environment, which is marked by a stable government at the centre, it would be possible to achieve higher levels of growth.

"With new environment in the country, where history has once again provided us kind of opportunity which it had provided 23 years ago, we can unleash these energy and perhaps go on higher level of growth rate," Jaitley said.

Indian economy had been growing at over nine per cent before the global financial meltdown of 2008. Growth rate slipped to below 5 per cent in 2012-13 and 2013-14.

In the current fiscal it is estimated to go up to 5.7 per cent.

Admitting that there are the Indian economic decision making has many challenges withing the government, he said, "the support system within the government is strong. The parliamentary process ...is largely supportive. And some who oppose are really not able to sustain the argument."

Referring to his Kolkata visit, Jaitley said, "the ruling (TMC) party was very critical of increasing the FDI in Defence. When we tried to reason out, they said our party in principle is against...they also realise they require resources as an additionality for more and more economic activities."