Bengaluru: Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman Sunday said the ongoing West Asia crisis and India’s dependence on import of three major commodities — crude oil and gas, fertilisers and gold — is weakening the rupee against the dollar.However, she said India remained among the world’s fastest-growing economies and that unemployment was easing.“Whenever there is a severe fluctuation or volatility in rupee versus the dollar, the RBI intervenes,” she said. “It is not to fix a price but to stop the slide. Also, our reserves are falling because of foreign institutional investors (FII) and foreign direct investments (FDI) booking profits and exiting the country due to strategic investments developing in the US. This is causing the fluctuation.”But the West Asia crisis, she said, is the more significant challenge“Since we do not produce enough crude and gas, and because of the limited domestic supply of fertilisers and gold, a huge amount of forex is going out which is adding to the rupee versus dollar situation,” she said.She said the govt is importing fertiliser at about Rs 3,000 per bag and selling it to farmers at Rs 300 – a subsidy of Rs 2,700. But she insisted it wasn’t only the rupee which is under pressure, but currencies such as the Japanese Yen and the Korean Won had also fallen sharply.Despite these constraints, Sitharaman said India’s economy is growing and that periodic labour force survey data indicated unemployment was declining.She criticised the opposition for repeatedly questioning the performance of the economy.“Even this year’s GDP shows every sector, whether services or manufacturing, has grown substantially,” she said. “But when the leader of the opposition constantly says every scheme or decision is going to turn into an economic disaster, then it is as good as undermining peoples’ efforts.”Sitharaman also acknowledged disruption across industries due to higher reliance on artificial intelligence (AI). “There is a churn because industries are using AI to get perfect results,” she said. She said the govt is offering AI-based training to help people return to industry with skills needed to protect their jobs.Meanwhile, she said the prime minister’s office (PMO) is directly overseeing the NEET issue. “It is not that the PM is not speaking on the issue. He is getting work done. A collective effort has been made to resolve the issue,” she said.Sitharaman also said the departure of K Annamalai from BJP should not be viewed as an incident arising from personal reasons, but from differences of opinion. She said BJP is a cadre-based organisation and will continue its work.“There have been several instances in the past of functionaries, including BS Yediyurappa ji, the father of our party president BY Vijayendra, qutting the party. But when he came back, we respected him for his decision. BJP respects members when they quit the fold and when they return also. The party does not hold grudges,” she said.