India can grow consistently at 8% for next 20 years on current investment strategy: Ashwini Vaishnaw
Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that Indian economy can grow consistently at 8 per cent for the next 20 years leading to the generation of up to 1.5 crore new jobs and bringing out 3.5 crore people out of the poverty every year on the basis of the capital investment strategy of the government. He said that the government has set a target of increasing the capital investment level in the budget from 27 per cent of the GDP to 35 per cent of the GDP over the next few years.
He further said that India has been a consumption-led economy in the past and the Prime Minister has taken a path of faith to increase capital investment despite reluctance from several economists. He stated ‘Many of the European countries followed the prescription of the noble laureates and they are in a very bad situation. We decided to choose the path which had three elements- public investment, very focussed consumption and reforms and incentives for private industries.’
He said Germany, the US, Japan, China and South Korea have followed the same path of capital investments for several years. Besides, he mentioned the country's nominal GDP at the end of the financial year 2021 was Rs 198 trillion and the target was to reach Rs 225 trillion. He added in this Rs 198 trillion economy, close to Rs 116 trillion came from consumption which is about 59 per cent of the GDP and Rs 53 trillion came from investment which is only about 27 per cent of the GDP. The government after analysing that its liability is around 60 per cent of the GDP, decided to go for increasing capital investments.