Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chowdhary said that the government is taking steps to make the country a $5 trillion economy at the earliest.
“Reduced uncertainty in the global economic scenario will help India become the first $5 trillion economy,” Chowdhury said.
The government informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that it is taking steps to make India a $5 trillion economy ahead of the International Monetary Fund’s forecast year 2026-27.
The World Economic Outlook of the IMF had earlier said that the size of the Indian economy would grow from US$ 3.2 trillion in 2021-22 to US$ 3.5 trillion in 2022-23 and cross US$ 5 trillion in 2026-27.
“The government is taking steps to make the country a $5 trillion economy at the earliest,” Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chowdhary said in a written reply to the Upper House.
Noting that the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in 2020 and the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022 have impacted world output, increased inflation in many countries and increased uncertainty in the world economy, he said, “Uncertainty in the global economic outlook Decreasing would help India become a $5 trillion economy earlier”.
Some of the important measures taken by the government in the past to boost economic growth include creation of National Infrastructure Pipeline of projects, boosting capital expenditure, implementation of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, finalization of National Monetization Pipeline Is. public sector assets and formulating a national logistics policy, he said.
The Minister further said that capital expenditure will be accelerated by PM Gati Shakti for integrated planning and synchronous project implementation of infrastructure across all concerned Central Ministries, Departments and State Governments.
The Union Budget 2023-24, Chowdhury said, “sustains the growth momentum with capital investment outlay increasing by 33 per cent for the third consecutive year to Rs 10 lakh crore (3.3 per cent of GDP)”.
Other initiatives to boost the economy include increase in outlay for PM Awas Yojana, launch of Aspirational Block Program covering 500 blocks for saturation of essential government services; Increase in agriculture credit target to Rs 20 lakh crore with focus on animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries; and setting up of an Agri Accelerator Fund to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs in rural areas, etc.
The minister also said that direct capital investment by the Center is being complemented by provision made to the states for creation of capital assets through grants-in-aid.
He said the Centre’s ‘effective capital expenditure’ has been budgeted at Rs 13.7 lakh crore (4.5 per cent of GDP) for 2023-24.
He said that in order to improve logistics performance, one hundred important transport infrastructure projects for last and first-mile connectivity to ports, coal, steel, fertilizer and food grains sectors have been identified and will be given priority for development.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)
