Arun Jaitley is confident that India would become the fifth largest economy in the world by the end of this year pushing United Kingdom at sixth place. The growing economy would lead to increased expenditure in distressed rural sector and would impact the poor. Jaitley said “India’s growth story at a fast pace is likely to continue as per assessment of all credible agencies. Obviously, a high trajectory growth leads to higher revenue, The Congress gave slogans to rural India – Prime Minister Modi gave resources.” PM Modi has shaken the traditional thinking process and ensured that rural and the less privileged get the first right of resources. If this and increased expenditure continues for the next decade, the impact on India’s rural poor would be very significant.
India’s fast pace growth story is likely to continue as per assessment of all credible agencies. Obviously, a high trajectory growth leads to a higher revenue. PM @narendramodi has shaken the traditional thinking process & ensured that rural India get the first right of resources
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) July 13, 2018
India has become the sixth largest economy in the world surpassing France, which moved down to seventh place. According to the data updated by World Bank, India’s GDP was $2.597 trillion in 2017, while for France it was $2.582 trillion. The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital projects. The United States, China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom occupy top 5 places with a GDP of $19.390 trillion dollars, $12.237 trillion dollars, $4.872 dollars, $3.677 dollars, and $2.622 trillion dollars respectively. As per the World Bank June 2018 edition of the Global Economic Prospect report, India will grow at the rate of 7.3% in 2018-19 and 7.5% for 2019-20, which makes India the fastest growing major economy in the world. Referring to the World Bank ‘s latest data that showed the country reaching sixth position ahead of France, Arun Jaitley said: “If we keep growing at the rate which is being projected, it is likely that next year we will be the fifth largest economy ahead of Great Britain. This is in consonance with the rest of the narrative.”
The United Kingdom is a little ahead of India in GDP measures in 2017 data. London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) had predicted that India would become the world’s fifth largest economy surpassing the UK by the end of 2018. For India to take over its former colonial master would be a matter of pride and joy. It should be noted here that India’s share in the world GDP was almost 25 percent when the British first came to India. The loot and exploitation by the British was so devastating that the country’s share in the world GDP came down to almost 2 percent when they left the country in 1947. The combined effect of colonial loot and backwardness in industrialization diminished the stature of the country with respect to world GDP. India was known as the ‘crown jewel’ of the British Empire because it contributed the most for the expansion of the empire and wealth creation in Britain. Now when the country will surpass Britain in 2018, in just 7 decades after getting independence, this will be a befitting reply to our former colonial masters.
Arun Jaitley argued that the NDA government’s approach has been different from that of the past governments and their models. “The present Prime Minister is a man of many words and many more actions. He announces stiff targets and programs which at first sight appear to be difficult, if not impossible. He follows it up with the actual implementation and delivers the promise. This benefits all — irrespective of religion, caste or community. The Congress provided India’s poor with slogan. Prime Minister Modi has given them resources. This will ensure faster growth and lead to a faster depletion in the poverty.” However, he added that rising international crude oil prices and the global trade war would throw up challenges going forward.
