{"id":65578,"date":"2026-05-25T20:09:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T14:39:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/?p=65578"},"modified":"2026-05-25T20:09:58","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T14:39:58","slug":"finance-minister-sitharaman-defends-pm-modis-austerity-call-amid-west-asia-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/finance-minister-sitharaman-defends-pm-modis-austerity-call-amid-west-asia-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Finance Minister Sitharaman defends PM Modi\u2019s austerity call amid West Asia crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s call for austerity and expenditure control, stressing the need to focus on the \u201c3Fs\u201d \u2014 fuel, fertiliser and forex reserves \u2014 amid the ongoing West Asia crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at the 37th Foundation Day event of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Sitharaman also targeted critics who, she said, had attempted to create a pessimistic narrative following the Prime Minister\u2019s appeal for restraint in spending.<\/p>\n<p>The finance minister said India could not afford fearmongering at this stage and emphasised that the current challenges had emerged due to external global developments rather than weaknesses within the domestic economy.<\/p>\n<p>She underlined that India\u2019s economy continues to remain stable and resilient despite international uncertainty and geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s call for austerity and expenditure control, stressing the need to focus on the \u201c3Fs\u201d \u2014 fuel, fertiliser and forex reserves \u2014 amid the ongoing West Asia crisis. Speaking at the 37th Foundation Day event of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Sitharaman also [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65579,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,37],"tags":[15270,15269],"class_list":["post-65578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-national","tag-austerity-call-amid-west-asia-crisis","tag-finance-minister-sitharaman-defends-pm-modi"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Finance Minister Sitharaman defends PM Modi\u2019s austerity call amid West Asia crisis - PunjabENews<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/punjabenews.com\/English\/latest\/finance-minister-sitharaman-defends-pm-modis-austerity-call-amid-west-asia-crisis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Finance Minister Sitharaman defends PM Modi\u2019s austerity call amid West Asia crisis - PunjabENews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"New Delhi: Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s call for austerity and expenditure control, stressing the need to focus on the \u201c3Fs\u201d \u2014 fuel, fertiliser and forex reserves \u2014 amid the ongoing West Asia crisis. 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