India’s GDP could rise to about $8 trillion over the next 15 years if the country registers an economic growth of 8 per cent annually and come very close to eliminating abject poverty entirely, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya has said.
He said with that level of economic growth, living standards and amenities that are taken for granted in the west will become accessible to a very large part of the population in India in the coming 15 years.
‘Today, the Indian economy is among the major economies, the fastest growing economy, it has now left China behind. It grew in real dollars in the last 15 years ending 2016-17 (at) about 9 per cent,’ Panagariya said here.
‘Once we correct for the exchange rate (changes), in real dollars India’s growth rate in the last 15 years has been about 9 per cent,’ he said at an interactive multi-stakeholder panel hosted by India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, the NITI Aayog and think-tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries yesterday.
He added that if one were to ‘make a very conservative assumption that over the coming 15 years, India would grow eight per cent, (the country’s) GDP would rise from 2.3 trillion dollars today to close to about $8 trillion,’ with an average income of over $5,000.
‘At that level of income it is not simply that we will be very close to eliminating abject poverty entirely but a large part of the population will be very prosperous,’ he said, at the event titled ‘Transforming India: Eradicating Poverty, Promoting Prosperity’.
Participating in the panel along with Panagariya were Columbia University Professor and eminent economist Jagdish Bhagwati, India’s former Permanent Representative to the UN and Chairperson of think-tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) Hardeep Singh Puri, Chief Statistician of India TCA Anant and renowned actor Anupam Kher.
‘I really think that as you go forward, there is a major transformation waiting to happen in the lives of about 1.3 billion - 1.5 billion people by 2030. That will mean that much greater prosperity for the entire world,’ he said.