 News 18, India. One thing related to the job market, especially, if you look at the campus recruitment in engineering colleges and MBA colleges. So on one side, there is this, the economy is doing well. And all indicators point to that. But on the other hand, the campus recruitment this year has been muted. Salaries have been lower. Many students have not got a job offer yet. How do you see this in relation to the overall big picture? The question about employment, I am afraid, we are repeatedly focusing only on those indicators, pertaining to the formal economy, which is important. I am not denying its role. So college recruitments, IM like campuses, are important. But equally, the jobs that are getting created in the middle and lower order are not getting counted at all. I would look at the way in which banks and their credit of take is happening in small and medium businesses. The new companies which have got registered, which is a data which I have put out from the MCA, the number of new companies which have started are certainly not people who are being recruited for jobs. They are people who are investing money, believing in their skills, registering a company, and probably giving jobs for others. Why would new companies get registered in a bigger number than before if employment is not being offered? Companies cannot operate in vacuum without human beings in them. So I think a fairer, open and an exhaustive picture of India's employment, both in the formal and non-formal areas, will have to have some kind of a wider base with which we need to bring in such data so that the discussion can be more informed. And some of I think the global slowdown is also having an impact on our jobs, especially at the higher end, right? I mean, IM campuses or engineering colleges, et cetera. Equally, because of the way in which artificial intelligence is coming, the kind of job requirements that are expected of new recruits are also changing. So the people with old skill sets are now expected to have additional newer skill sets for entering into a certain area which still now did not exist. So lots of calibrations are required in understanding this. That's right. You know, yesterday in your budget speech, you were very appreciative of income tax payers. You, in fact, the number of income tax people paying income tax has gone up. Collections are up 2.4 times. You were quite appreciative. In fact, I thought you just stopped short of sort of giving them something back because it was a vote on account. My question is that, you know, salary people are paying 30% today, whereas corporates pay 22% tax. In the longer term, directionally... Corporates meaning as an entity. Yes, that's right. So I'm saying in the longer term, directionally, do you think you would align this in some way or the other? And I'm talking about the longer term. Well, the direct taxation reforms are a steady job in the pipeline and some results come out and more work is happening. So direct taxation is something on which we want ease of the taxpayers' facilitation which has to be improved. And also one of the things happened yesterday, one of the serving the customer better business in the taxation regime happened yesterday. But more work can always be done. Yes, so salary can be more hopeful in the coming days in your July budget. I'm not saying anything now. No, I know that. I mean, directionally over the long term. You managed inflation very well in the past few years. You know, what about food inflation? You know, that's really pinching the common man. Pulses are up 20%, vegetables, 27%. Any plan to sort of rein in food inflation? See, food inflation cannot be spoken as one basket or one item. It has so many different components. If pulses are becoming more expensive, we are import dependent to meet adequacy in meeting their demand in the sense we are not self-sufficient. We need to import to meet our demand. And when you depend on imports, the prices are determined by the supplier, not by us. So when it is pulse or dal, where the prices have to be controlled, so much has to be done well in advance. If you know your crop is only X and not what you need, then you pre-plan imports. You have to touch on very many countries to get the imports and so on. And in that, of course, the role of the traders is very important. That is one thing. Second is you're looking at other seasonal vegetables which can equally be affected by drought or by excess rain. No import substitution or no import in the last minute can help us if suddenly one particular crop, say of potatoes or onions or tomatoes are lost, the last minute procurement from somewhere else is also fraught with difficulties. So the treatment for controlling price for pulses and the perishable crops and let's say rice which can be stored are all very different. And that is why there is a committee in government of India which looks into this and makes sure that periodically you're able to get in time those based on estimates. It's an ongoing job. It's not with a deadline. It has to keep happening. And I think largely the committee has been successful. Otherwise we couldn't have been closer to the policy range. That's right. I had interviewed the Prime Minister in 2016 as early as that and he spoke about the white paper. He said that we should come out with the white paper because we inherited an economy which was in the fragile five. And that was early, just two years into the government and what we had to really do to drag it out of the levels it had reached. You spoke similarly yesterday about the white paper and you said it was a Herculean task to bring the economy back from the brink. What is the idea behind the white paper? Why now? And will it be another stick to beat the opposition with? See, you're right in pointing out that the Honorable Prime Minister has spoken about it even in 2016 in your interview. Then it was so many different sections of our society themselves suggested to us that you better bring a white paper out. To say why Indian economy has reached the fragile five. To say why our banks had become such a black hole, nothing could be restored of the banks. Banks were all in deep trouble. Look at the number of NPAs and the value of the NPAs. Meaning what was the original value and to what extent they had reached almost close to valueless positions. So whether it was your banks, whether it was the overall economy, whether it was defense procurement, whether it was a vital sector of telecom. Why? Even minerals, every area was ridden with problems. Now, if you're talking of corruption, well, it's one thing, it goes to the court, people get punished and then the monies are given back or not given back. Values are retrieved or not retrieved. That's one side of the story. But what impact it left on the economy? To restore your banks back to health, to make sure your country is safe with adequate strategic equipment given to defense personnel. To make sure that your minds which are wealth under the earth. Meaning inside the earth under the soil. To use them for the benefit of the country rather than to use them as one instrument through which you line your own pocket. What implications it had on the economy? Banks not being healthy, minds being given to brothers and sisters who did not want to extract the mineral for the benefit of the country. Spectrum allocations, if it had happened in time, I didn't have to spend so much to restore BSNL to have 2G or 4G in time. And what implication does it have on the country when 4G is not available in time whether whereas the whole world is talking about 5G. So the kind of impact that it had, the mismanagement, it is not just talking about policy paralysis for a fragile five. It's talking about every one of these steps which one in morally, which number one morally was immoral in the sense was not right. And equally the kind of positive effect if it had happened very well in a transparent fashion it would have had on the economy. We lost 10 glorious years and to restore it to that position back and then to pull it up to now get closer to the world's third largest economy is a herculean task which I'm grateful this country had a Prime Minister like Modiji who single-mindedly said I will restore this economy back. It's my service to the nation. Otherwise it wouldn't have happened. So why the white paper now? We've had 10 years and prior to that there was a 10 years where you saw all this happening. Policy paralysis, corruption, nation losing its endowments and so on. 10 years under Prime Minister Modi. What kind of course corrections had to happen? What kind of restoring confidence had to happen? What kind of pulling back from rut that had to happen? And equally making sure you're purchasing the equipments, you're removing BSNL from distress, you're making sure BSNL employees are given their due, you're making sure the country gets 5G, not just 4G. Look at the coverage India has in 5G today. I agree. All this and to make sure that the investor confidence is not just intact but is growing that within a matter of eight years I would say we've reached 596 billion US dollars as our foreign exchange reserve. Just compare that with the last 10 years. At least for the sake of the elected honorable representatives who are sitting in the parliament, they should know what was it then, what effort it took to restore it here and what we should not therefore ever imagine or dream of doing in personal interest, forgetting the nation. Why now? Parliament should know. Two, at that time had Prime Minister Modi not taken the call that in the interest of our nation, I would not bring it out. He didn't bring the paper then, white paper then because you put the nation first. You say, if I do it now, ha, I can be happy but the confidence in our country would have been lost. Investors wouldn't have come. Our own people would have lost faith in the systems. They would say, oh my God, this government will come each away and go, that next government can come. It'll do its own, but we're all languishing. The faith in institutions, in government, in leaders, in politics would have been lost in the minds of people. And I'm so grateful that the Prime Minister didn't do it then. He restored it all, put India on such a wonderful track towards becoming third largest economy and then so that all of us know what it took and what we shouldn't do in the future, this paper. So when do you table it? Well, soon. The passionate reply from you, I must say.