What is white paper? All you need to know

White paper by NDA: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented the White Paper on the Indian economy in both the houses of Parliament - Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.  The Modi government had announced in the interim budget that it would bring a white paper to compare the ten years of the NDA government with the ten years of the UPA government. 

What is white paper?

The White Paper is a government document. Through this, the government will try to highlight its policies and achievements and will also try to know their reaction. While presenting the interim budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had claimed that when PM Narendra Modi took over the reins of the country in 2014, the Indian economy was in 'crisis'. He blamed the 'mis-management' of the Manmohan Singh government for this situation.

Through the white paper, Modi government has compared the condition of the economy during the 10 years of UPA with the time of NDA government. The white paper will likely describe, evaluate and analyse the overall economic policy of the Government of India over the last few years covering various subsets such as fiscal policy, monetary policy, trade policy policy and exchange rate policy.

The government has said in the white paper that the economy was in crisis in the year 2014, if the white paper was presented then, it could have created a negative environment and the confidence of investors would have been shaken.

Apart from this, it has also been claimed in the white paper that instead of quick solutions, the NDA government made bold reforms. Equipped with political and policy stability, the NDA government, unlike its previous UPA government, took tough decisions for major economic benefits.

What was said in the white paper?

Non-transparent auction of public resources (coal and telecom) was conducted during the UPA regime. According to CAG estimates, the Coal Gate scam caused a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer. The CWG scam indicated an environment of increasing political uncertainty and had a negative impact on the image of India as an investment destination.

Coal scam shook the conscience of the country in 2014. Before 2014, allocation of coal blocks was done on an arbitrary basis without following a transparent process. These actions were scrutinised by investigating agencies and in 2014 the Supreme Court de-allocated 204 coal mines/blocks allotted since 1993

During the UPA government, decisions could not be taken in the defense sector due to corruption and scams. Because of this defense preparations were compromised. The government delayed purchasing artillery and anti-aircraft guns, fighter planes, submarines, night fighting gear and many other equipment.

The NDA government overcame the challenges left by the UPA government. The UPA government failed miserably in facilitating economic activities. This created obstacles due to which the economy could not progress. Every challenge of the pre-2014 era was addressed through the economic management and governance of the NDA government. There were many scams which caused huge revenue loss to the government exchequer and increased fiscal and revenue deficit