Assistance provided by Sanjay Hansda and Arghya Mitra in preparation of the paper is gratefully acknowledged. *  *  *  It gives me great pleasure to be here amongst you and address the World Bank Sub-national Fiscal Reform and Debt Management Forum.
There is more than one reason on my part to accept this invitation, but more importantly, to share with you the turnaround story at the subnational level in India. The relevance of fiscal reforms and creation of fiscal space even at the sub-national level can hardly be over-emphasised in the context of the on-going slowdown the world over.