A definiting moment for Indian economy

"I always believe that 1991 was defining moment for India, what started in 1991 could have started at least a decade before. 1991 marked a process where India decided to unleash energies of its citizens rather than restrict them," Jaitley said during the 16th D.P. Kohli Memorial lecture on 'Economic Challenges'.

"India decided to discard a politics which wanted to distribute existing resources and even distribute poverty rather than generate wealth," he added.

" India being a land of shortages at least we have come a long way from that. It appeared that somewhere down the line we had lost a little bit of credibility of our decision making process," Jaitley said.

He recounted how the country's growth rates had started slowing down, inflation had started picking up and the indecisiveness had been costing us heavily.

The finance minister, however, added that 2014 had brought significant changes for the nation.

"2014 brought significant changes. After 30 years we had a clear mandate and government with virtually a single party majority was voted into power," Jaitley added.