India can become $47 trillion economy by 2047: Piyush Goyal

It is not at all inconceivable for India to achieve an economy of $47 trillion by 2047, Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, said on Tuesday.

In his address at the 17th India Digital Summit organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Goyal said India can achieve this feat given the "continuance of good governance" that the country has seen over the past eight-nine years, its immense talent pool and "diasporic support" the nation commands.

To back his argument, Goyal reminded the audience how despite various kinds of political and economic uncertainties and headwinds, since 1991 the Indian economy had seen 11.5X growth, from under $300 billion to $3.5 trillion.

"By 2030, India should be at $1 trillion of merchandise export. Juxtapose this contextually with the Startup India Mission and Digital India. We have seen broadband spread to the remotest corners of the country and have 800 million smartphone users. I suspect today that just like the refrigerator, we will have a smartphone in every family across the country," Goyal said.

"The biggest strength that young India has is the perpetual desire for more and the perpetual dissatisfaction with what you have been able to achieve. I love the enthusiasm in today's generation. I appreciate your ability to think out of the box and the fire in your belly and desire to achieve extraordinary results and that is what is driving India’s digital future," he added.

Referring to the "ZED factor - Zero Effect and Zero Defect", the minister said, "If we accept this as our mantra, imagine how we can transform this country. How sustainability and clean energy can drive economic growth and how quality can become our calling card. That's the India we would like to see."

"The Amrit Kaal that we have just entered into is going to be an area of digital transformation, an area where there would be changes in the energy world – huge redeployment of energy sources which we can leverage to our advantage and resilient supply chains which can determine the future world order," Goyal added.

This comes even as India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) expects the Indian economy to grow 5.9% year-on-year in FY24. The GDP growth estimate of the agency is lower than the 6.4% real GDP growth projected by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

The recent rise in retail inflation has affected the lower strata of the population in the first nine months of the ongoing financial year, unlike FY22, the ratings and research agency said earlier this week. The effective inflation faced by the bottom 50% of the population both in rural and urban areas during April-December 2022 was 40 basis points higher than the headline retail inflation, it said.