He said that India is unlikely to witness higher growth like it had seen between 2003 and 2008 when the economy grew 8.5-9%, supported by benign global conditions.
“Why am I talking about 6.5% and not 7.5 or 8%? It is because we are not experiencing the kind of global growth we had experienced in 2003 and 2008,” the chief economist said Friday at an event organised by Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He spoke from New Delhi through video conferencing.
He said that the response to the pandemic and other one-time shocks is over and now it is all about consolidation.
“India is poised for steady growth for the rest of this decade. Our goal should not be only to become the third-largest economy in aggregate size but also in per capita terms, becoming a middle-income or upper middle-income country, for that we need to make sure that the aspiring middle class is not only able to get the kind of goods and services that they need but they are also in a position to contribute and this is not just a task for the public sector but also the private sector,” he said.
Minister of State, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said India has become the fastest growing economy in the world despite all odds.”We were in the fragile five and here we are now at the top five economies of the world. In the next three years, we will cross Japan and Germany and we will be in the league with the US and China amongst the top three economies in the world,” the minister said.He spoke about the government’s focus on infrastructure development — from rail to roads, to ports to logistics, networks. “We are spending Rs 13 lakh crore in this financial year in creating modern infrastructure. The deep transformation changes that has happened for the past nine years has provided an enabling framework for today’s and future growth,” he added.
