Integrated framework

India needs a medium-term economic strategy

The government has made it clear that its plan is to create a “Viksit Bharat” — a developed India. Various dates have been suggested for the realisation of this ambition, though the one most often cited is 2047, the hundredth anniversary of India’s independence. It is only right that such ambitions be set. However, the implications in terms of growth requirements for such a target are quite onerous. A growth rate of at least 8 per cent will be required, year after year, for decades to reach even the current cut-off for high-income countries of $14,000 nominal gross domestic product