new delhi finance minister nirmala sitharaman said on wednesday that indias macro economic fundamentals are strong and inflation is at manageable leveltalking about the union budget 202324 she said that growth health and education would be the main priorities of the governmentwe would continue to push capital expenditure and that im saying even as im preparing for the next budget nirmala sitharaman said in an interview at the reuters next conferencethe fm added that she saw signs of a pickup in private investments toositharaman also defended the use of foreign exchange reserves to address the volatility in the currency that touched record lows about a month ago all of us are confident that what has happened in terms of using reserves to contain the volatility was the right thing to do she said heres other key points from sitharamans speechindia needs to take care of its own interest on oil and needs to have affordable and sustainable oil sitharaman said when asked whether the nation will join others in putting a price cap on russian oilthe government remains very openminded on expanding the scope of productionlinked incentiveswill focus reforms for multilateral banks climate finance regulation of crypto assets during indias g20 presidencycrypto assets that are coming like mushrooms will have to be regulated and that cannot be regulated effectively unless countries come togethermeanwhile indias economy grew by 63 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal official data released on wednesday showedamong key sectors agricultural output rose 46 while manufacturing fell 43 and the employmentgenerating construction sector saw a 66 annual increase in activity sitharaman is set to present the union budget for 202324 on february 1 2023 this will be the last full budget of the modi government before the 2024 lok sabha electionsthe fm has concluded her prebudget meetings with various industry bodies and stakeholdersthe meetings were held in virtual mode between november 21 and 28with inputs from agencies