India would be the world’s third largest economy by 2027-28 and have a GDP of more than $5 trillion, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday as she called for partnership between the centre and the states.
It would be a $30 trillion economy by 2047 by conservative estimate, she said at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar. Rapid growth is possible as the people of India have met with the challenges created by Covid-19 and put economic recovery on a strong footing.
“One emphasis of achieving the Viksit Bharat goal is to remove the colonial mindset which has been in us and is important for us to get over. People, the states, stakeholders, central government, all of us will have to work to achieve that,” she said.
Since 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, the relationship between states and the central government has been of cooperative, competitive and collaborative federalism. The earlier default setting in the relationship was "give" for the Union and "take" for the states, she said.
“I call it a partnership between the Centre and states. So this participatory approach is what gives us the language for thinking about how India can reach that target through the Amrit Kaal between now and 2047.”
Sitharaman said that of the $919 billion India got as foreign direct investment (FDI) in the last 23 years, 65 per cent (over $595 billion) had come in the last nine years beginning 2014. “Where policies bring greater certainty, convenience, ease of doing business FDI flows.”
Financial inclusion, households free of open defecation and direct benefit transfer (DBT) were some important milestones of the Modi government. As much as Rs 33 trillion has been transferred under DBT, resulting in savings of almost Rs 2.73 trillion for the government because pilferage has been reduced.