India’s annual GDP growth needs to be 8 per cent, and not 6.5 per cent, if it wants to achieve its target of becoming a developed economy by 2047, said BVR Subrahmanyam, CEO, NITI Aayog, while highlighting the crucial role statistics needs to play in policymaking.
“This data business is very, very important for our goal of Viksit Bharat. After all, if you grow at 6.5 per cent, you will not be Viksit Bharat; (if) you grow at 8 per cent, you will be Viksit Bharat,” Subrahmanyam on Thursday. “It looks very small, 1.5 per cent. But the difference, I tell you, in 2047 is going to be immense… What looks very minuscule can have major, major difference at the end,” the NITI CEO added while speaking at a sensitisation-cum-review meeting with statistical advisers in various ministries and departments, organised by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
Subrahmanyam’s comments come amid risks to India’s economic growth from the 50 per cent tariff announced by the US earlier this month, with the 25 per cent penalty component coming into force on August 27. While economists have predicted a potential hit of about 50 basis points (bps) to India’s 2025-26 GDP growth from the 50 per cent tariff, S&P Global Ratings on Thursday said the effect will be “manageable” as it upgraded India’s rating to BBB from BBB