Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that the country will emerge as the third largest economy in the world in coming years.
“This will be achieved in my third term and this is Modi’s Guarantee,” Modi said at a Global Business Summit organised by a private TV channel in the Capital.
“You are already seeing India growing at a blistering pace. There is no doubt that India will become third largest economy in the world in my third term.”
India, which is the world’s fastest-growing large economy, is currently the fifth largest in the world in terms of purchasing power parity.
Special scheme
Modi also said that his third term would have very big schemes aimed at drastically reducing poverty in the country and push India’s development to a new trajectory. This special scheme for eliminating poverty has been in the works for the last one-and-a-half years and is expected to be finalised in the next 15-20 days. “We are developing a roadmap for this purpose. Already I have taken suggestions from 15 lakh people,” he said.
Modi also said that he could have brought out the white paper on the economy in 2014 itself, but chose not to do as the country’s economy then was in bad shape and was riddled with scams.
“A wrong signal would have gone out to the world. It would have politically suited me to bring it out in 2014. But I did not do it in the interest of the country,” he said.
“In the last 10 years, every facet of economy has strengthened and this has prompted me to now bring out the white paper.”
Asserting that this is India’s time, Modi said that the recent Budget, which had continued with a government capex-led growth strategy, had all the ingredients of taking the country to higher growth path.