KOLKATA – India could have the world’s third largest GDP by 2025 if the country maintained its present growth rate, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Monday while conceding that the target of 9% growth for the next five years was “very ambitious” given the current state of the global economy.
Addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, the prime minister cautioned that while the “rosy future” was within the nation’s reach, it was not an assured outcome.
Manmohan Singh, who is regarded as the architect of India’s economic reforms for having initiated them as finance minister between 1991 and 1996, said the reforms programme had courted controversy in the early years but all regimes at the centre had carried them forward.
“There have been differences of emphasis but the direction has remained the same. Most state governments have also acted in the same spirit.
“Because of our gradualist approach, it took time for the economic reforms to have an impact. However, it is now clear that their impact has been remarkable.”
“If we can continue to grow at this rate, we are well positioned to be the country with the third largest GDP in the world by 2025.”
