In an ambitious bid to turn into a $5 trillion economy, the Indian government has eyed a sustained rate of 8% or more for the next 6 years, set up by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the Economic Survey 2018-2019 released on Thursday.
Modi had laid out the growth target in his first meeting with Niti Aayog Governing Council, a policy think tank of the government of India, on June 15, barely a month after his government swept the Lok Sabha polls and returned to power. He had said that the goal to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024 is “challenging, but achievable”.
He had said that the target can be achieved with the concerted efforts of states and asking them to recognize their core competence and work towards raising their gross domestic product targets right from the district level.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) promised to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2025 in its the manifesto ahead of the national polls in April.
The size of India’s economy was estimated at $ 2.75 trillion at the end of March. In 2017, India’s $2.6 trillion economy surpassed France’s to become the world’s sixth largest. India is likely to surpass the UK as the fifth largest economy this year, according to projections from PwC’s Global Economy Watch.
