Amid the malign geopolitical situation worldwide, India's economic growth prospects seem bright and is one of the relatively better-performing nations, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) Chairman Bibek Debroy said on Tuesday.
He added, "I would say that leading up to 2047 whether it's in terms of development indicators, whether in terms of growth rates, whether it is in terms of reduction in poverty, whether it is in terms of increase in employment, the moment you begin to look beyond the immediate concerns of uncertainty, the prospect is fairly bright."
The EAC-PM Chairman further said that India can become an upper-middle-income country by 2047, if it manages to achieve a sustained growth rate of 7-7.5% for the next 25 years.
At this growth rate, the country can become a $20 trillion economy by 2047, Debroy said while releasing the Competitiveness Roadmap for India@100 -- what the government terms as India's Amrit Kaal.
He also believes that India will also be among the high human development category countries by 2047.
On GDP numbers
Speaking about GDP numbers, Debroy said it will not miss the nominal growth rates envisaged in the Budget.
India, the world's sixth largest economy with a GDP of $2.7 trillion, is classified as a developing country at present.
"Even if you have relatively conservative real rates of growth of 7-7.5%, we will get to a per capita income of about $10,000.
"And you will get to a total size of the economy of a little less than USD 20 trillion in 2047," the EAC-PM Chairman said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set an ambitious target of making India a developed nation by 2047.
"...which means India will be in the upper middle-income category, not a higher-income category," Debroy said, adding that it also means that the nature of Indian society will be completely transformed.
As per the World Bank's definition, a country with a per capita annual income of over $12,000 is considered as a higher-income nation.
Noting that because what happens to India is an aggregate of what happens to the states, Debroy said, "And unless, the states jack up their growth records, the overall growth records for India is not going be that high either".
The International Monetary Fund said the Indian economy is forecast to expand by 7.4% in FY23, making it one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
A developed country is typically characterised by a relatively high level of economic growth, a general standard of living, and higher per capita income as well as performing well on the Human Development Index (HDI), which includes education, literacy and health.
India was classified as a 'third-world' country at the time of Independence from British rule in 1947. But, over the past seven decades, its GDP has grown from just ₹2.7 lakh crore to ₹150 lakh crore.
