The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Monday said that at the current growth rate, India would be the third largest economy in the world by 2025. He, however, cautioned that considering the global economic turmoil, achieving such a growth would not be easy.

During his meeting with the Planning Commission on Saturday, the Prime Minister had set a “very ambitious” target for the country to achieve a “faster, sustainable and more inclusive” 9 per cent growth during the Twelfth Plan period (2012-17).

“It is in fact a very ambitious target given the current global economic situation, which is full of uncertainties about the prospects in industrialised countries and their implications in global capital markets. Our own economy has also slowed down compared to last year and this year's growth may be around 8 per cent or a little more, at best,” Dr Singh said during his Golden Jubilee lecture at the Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta.

According to the Prime Minister, to repeat the growth performance of Japan, Korea and finally China, India should improve upon agriculture productivity, create infrastructure to ensure inclusive growth, achieve energy efficiency and rational pricing of energy products, manage water resources, expand education and health services among others.

“India is now capable of repeating the performance of this group (Japan, Korea and China) of Asian countries. But we must remember that it will not happen automatically, by simply proceeding on business-as-usual basis,” he said.

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