HYDERABAD: Speakers at an annual discussion on the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman termed it as ‘lacklustre’ and said that one has to go back and learn from the post-liberalisation period where around 25 crore people were brought out of poverty. Ajay Gandhi, partner of Gandhi and Gandhi and founder trustee of Manthan Foundation said that on the economic front, GDP has been decreasing for the last three to four years.

He said for any meaningful positive gains for the economy, 'we need to need to grow at least 8 per cent'. "Over a 20 year period post-liberalisation we got 25 crore people out of poverty. We need to go back and learn from there," Gandhi said.

Other speakers at the Manthan included MR Vikram, partner of M Anandam & Co and founder Trustee of Manthan Foundation, PR Ramesh, chairman of Deloitte India and S Thirumalai, a chartered accountant. Speakers on the panel said, “We should admit that there is a problem, that few assets are in a problematic state as former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had pointed out.”