President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said that India is a bright spot in an otherwise ‘gloomy global economy’ and it should invest in infrastructure and human capital to achieve and maintain high growth of over 8% over the next two decades.
The President expressed confidence that India will achieve a growth rate of between 8 and 8.5 % in the current fiscal on the back of moderating inflation rates, lower current account and fiscal deficit, strong foreign currency reserve as well as stable tax policies.India, Mukherjee said, “appears as one of the few bright spots in the otherwise gloomy global economy.”
He was speaking at the inauguration of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations of Engineering Export Promotion Council of India. He said that in order to achieve high growth rates over the next two decades, India would require unprecedented investments in infrastructure, human and social capital. In 2014-15, India recorded a growth rate of 7.3 per cent.
The growth prospects for the engineering sector is immense, he said adding that the sector accounts for over 22% of India's total merchandise export