Amitabh Kant: India must grow at 9-10% to become $35-trillion economy

Karnal, February 20

India’s G20 Sherpa and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said the country needs to accelerate its growth and grow by 9-10 per cent for the next three decades to become a

$35-trillion economy by 2047.

He made these remarks while delivering the keynote address at the ‘Viksit Bharat’ debate at Ashoka University, Sonepat. He added that the country needs constant innovation and disruption to realise this vision, focus on growth that is digital and manufacturing-led and maximise the potential of sunrise sectors such as CleanTech and ClimateTech. The event was jointly organised by New India Junction (NIJ) and the Orator’s Club at the university.

Talking about India’s growth story during the last decade, Kant said the new government in 2014 was facing numerous economic challenges. The reforms undertaken, such as the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax, digitisation of economy, reduction of corporate tax and the new bankruptcy and insolvency code, have been the big drivers for achieving macroeconomic stabilization.

He added that between 2015 and 2017, the government had managed to open 550 million bank accounts, link them with Aadhar and mobile phones. This led to the fast payment infrastructure and made India a global leader in the category, enabling access to services such as “insurance in less than a minute”, Kant said.

Highlighting the achievements of the government, he said that it had enabled “growth with equity,” provided 40 million houses, 110 million toilets, water connection to 243 million Indians, electricity to 30 million households and built 77,000 kilometres of roads.

Pramath Raj Sinha, co-founder and chairperson of the board of trustees, Ashoka University, said the institute firmly believes in nurturing an environment for meaningful dialogue that can help shape the country’s growth story for the coming decades and beyond.