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Expressing optimism over India’s economic prospects, Economic Advisory Council member Sanjeev Sanyal has said India is capable of sustaining an economic growth of 9 per cent for many years, even as he asserted that a high sustained GDP growth rate is key for the world to achieve the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He said India has a per capita income of only $2,200 and that has been achieved after several years of very high growth rate.

He said ‘Particularly for the Global South, sustaining high GDP growth rate is critical to achieving SDGs and without that, all we are doing will be re-distributing poverty. Even for relatively advanced countries, most of them have very high debt levels. For them also, sustained high level of GDP growth will be very important.’ Adopted in 2015 by the UN General Assembly, the SDGs are a collection of 17 global goals ‘for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future’ that are intended to be achieved by 2030.

The goals are: no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure and reduced inequalities. The remaining goals are: sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions and partnerships for the goals.

He said that the GDP growth rate has been good for India despite the recent global crises, but there was still a scope to do better. As per the latest data, India's economic growth slowed to 6.3 per cent in the September quarter of 2022-23 on account of contraction in output of manufacturing and mining sectors, but the country continues to remain the fastest-growing major economy ahead of China which registered an economic growth of 3.9 per cent in July-September 2022.