Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 16 said India needs economic freedom to achieve developed nation status by 2047 and assured that the country would move to the third spot in the world economy from the current fifth position in the near future.
Criticising those who compared India with China, Ms. Sitharaman said that certain things could not be replicated from them. “India should attain self-sufficiency on economic matters. It should become an economic power. The country has come from tenth position to fifth in global rankings and a few years down the line we will achieve the third spot,” she said, after unveiling a bust of Mahatma Gandhi at Shrimati Indira Gandhi College in Tiruchirappalli.
Appealing to the students gathered at the venue to contribute to the progress of the nation, she said, "It is through the efforts of students like you that our country will become a developed nation by 2047."
