'India could be third largest economy by 2020'

Wednesday, 07 January 2004, 20:30 IST
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HYDERABAD: India could become the world's third largest economy by 2020, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K.C. Pant said here Wednesday. He was delivering the keynote address at the inaugural session of 10th Partnership Summit of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here. Pant said the 10th Five Year Plan (2002-07) aimed to make India the fastest growing economy in the world by the end of this period. "We believe that the country has the potential to record an average growth rate of eight percent per annum during these five years, rising above nine percent in the terminal year. "We intend to become the world's third largest economy well before (economist) Goldman Sachs' estimate (of 2040), preferably by 2020," he said. In the second quarter of this year, the gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 8.4 percent and it is to grow at over nine percent in the next two quarters. He pointed out that a recent study by Goldman Sachs on the growth prospects of four leading developing and transition economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - estimates that India will be the third largest economy in the world by 2040, after China and the US and all of this will be without any miracle growth. Pant noted that the most heartening feature of the growth had been the performance of brick and mortar sectors, which had demonstrated a degree of vitality that gives "us confidence about the future". The manufacturing sector is poised to realise the gains from the restructuring process it has gone through over the past few years. This process has been helped by the significant softening of interest rates. "I am certain that in the coming years, India will emerge as a manufacturing hub for the international market," he said. He called for strengthening the government's role in the social sectors, especially health and education. He saw economic infrastructure such as railways, ports, national roads and power as being opened up to the private sector to the extent the private sector displays its willingness. Pant said it was the aim of the government policy to create an investor-friendly climate in the country, and not just for foreign investors.
Source: IANS