Taking on critics who argue that India will become the world’s third largest economy in a few years with or without government intervention, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that political stability and policy consistency was essential for the prospect to turn into a reality, especially in a world marred by unprecedented volatility.
Claiming that the government was not keen on taking credit, Ms. Sitharaman said that those treating the Indian economy’s growth from the world’s tenth-largest to the fifth-largest and beyond as a ‘fait accompli’ were not being fair to India’s farmers, entrepreneurs, and the “struggling, weaker economic sections” whose efforts and aspirations have lifted the country.
“From the 10th position in 2013-14, we’ve become the fifth-largest economy, and in the next few years [will] become the third largest... There is no way in which I will accept if anyone says, ‘Oh, it’s guaranteed that we will move from five to three in the next few years and you don’t need a Prime Minister to say I’ll make sure that this country will move to the third rank’. I think that is losing perspective of what it takes to move upwards for better prospects of our citizens,” the Minister said.
