India Will Continue To Be World's Fastest Growing Large Economy For Many Decades To Come: Piyush Goyal

India will continue to be the world's fastest growing large economy for many decades to come, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal at the Asia Economic Dialogue in Pune on Saturday (25 February).

Addressing the event, Goyal shared his conviction that India would be the third largest economy in four years or so, at best five years.

“My own conviction about the way India is growing is that we will drive our economy probably closer to $35-40 trillion economy by 2047. The desire of every Indian is to be second to none," Goyal said, according to a Commerce Ministry statement.

He exhorted the industry to be proud of their achievements, of India's strong macroeconomic fundamentals, about the reforms done in the past few years.

“We believe India not only is the fastest growing large economy, we will continue to be so for many decades to come," he added.

The Minister observed that Asia has its own particular dynamics, where we have economies which are both democracies and those which are non-transparent and non-rule-based.

“In the last decade or so, India has been wanting to internationalise and engage with technology and modern way of working. Today, India is clearly recognized as the country of the decade, if not the country of the 21st century. We have already moved from the tenth largest to the fifth largest economy. We today have a young demographic dividend, which is being recognised as our biggest asset," he said.

The minister said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict has had a severe effect on the developed world more than the developing countries.

For food security and energy security and consequential impact on inflation, interest rates and growth, it has had a devastating effect on both developed and developing countries, he added.

The minister recalled that in 2019, when India was engaged in discussions on joining RCEP group of nations, having studied what was being offered to India as part of the RCEP Agreement, we realised we were in some way an outlier.

“To my mind, the then-government’s decision to offer to become a part of RCEP was ill-conceived, since we were entering into an FTA with a non-transparent economy with no rule of law or court of appeal or democracy. The agreement could have been the death-knell of all manufacturing in India," he said.

The minister stressed on the need to sensitise our people to take more pride in Indian products.

“India believes in the rule of law, the right to liberty, freedom of expression. Very different economic philosophies coexist in Asia. It will take some time for us to create adequate systems and manufacturing systems, and also sensitise our people and businesses to wean ourselves away from the opium of low-cost low-quality goods coming in from China," he said.

The minister said that India is now a partner the world can trust.

“By converting the COVID-19 crisis into an opportunity, we were able to open the world’s eyes towards India. Our ability to innovate and come out with vaccines and distribute and vaccinate the population at low cost has been a world record. During COVID-19, we did not let down a single international commitment. We are a trading partner the world can trust. We have had the highest ever exports in 2021-22," he said.

He also stressed on the need to be 100 per cent indigenised in auto industry.

“We must strengthen our domestic manufacturing capabilities; we should be competitive and able to stand on our legs and our consumers must be more caring on the potential we are losing by indiscriminate imports," the minister said.