Economy: India to clock the highest growth among Top 5, says Somanathan

Virendra Pandit 

New Delhi: Union Finance Secretary T V Somanathan on Thursday said India will continue to clock the highest growth rate among the top five economies in the world in the foreseeable future and urged the Indian diaspora to act as a catalyst and supplement government efforts in making India the biggest opportunity for global investors.

Addressing the IndiaSpora G-20 Forum, he said in terms of the size of the opportunity, India is the biggest development opportunity of the future because it is not just large but also growing faster than the other bigger economies.

At present. India is the fifth largest economy in the world, after the US, China, Japan and Germany.

An S&P Global report earlier this month projected India’s economy to double to USD 6.7 trillion by 2031, from USD 3.4 trillion now.

“India is already the world’s fifth largest economy and it is the largest country by population. India’s rate of growth by any measurement is much faster than the top four. Today we can safely say that all four are likely to have lower growth rates than India in the foreseeable future,” he said.

The Indian economy grew at the rate of 7.2 percent in 2022-23 and economists peg GDP growth to be in the range of 6-6.5 percent in FY24.

Somanathan asserted that India is the “most beautiful opportunity in the world” and the extent to which India harnesses this opportunity will mainly depend not on the diaspora but on the country’s domestic policies and population.

There are three channels through which diaspora can influence — fund flow, trade, and knowledge.

“If we do the right things, as we are doing now, then you can be a catalyst and a strong accelerator in what India can achieve,” he said, adding in India’s present stage of development knowledge transfer would be increasingly important.

India is the most populated country and all its challenges are of mega size. It is facing the challenges and has the ability to tackle them.

“You need to be patient with India… We can have a zig-zag line to progress, but we will keep progressing,” Somanathan said.

“In the years ahead, investment may become more important than philanthropy, technology transfer could be more important than investment and your knowledge may be more important than money.”