Maintaining India’s growth momentum
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs a meeting with economists and sectoral experts at NITI Aayog, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is also seen
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met leading economists and experts to discuss how India can become a developed nation by 2047.
Finance Ministry sources said the discussions extended beyond immediate budget exercise, focusing instead on a broader long-term growth vision.
Job creation, improving farm productivity, and mobilising public funds for infrastructure development were some of the issues that figured during the interaction between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and economists ahead of the 2025-26 Union Budget. According to an official statement, the Prime Minister emphasised that Viksit Bharat can be achieved through a fundamental change in mindset, which is focused towards making India developed by 2047.
The closed-door meeting took place at Niti Aayog and was attended by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Statistics and Programme Implementation, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister PK Mishra, Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Suman Bery, and Niti Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam.
The meeting comes ahead of the Union Budget, which is scheduled to be presented on February 1, 2025. The industry is hoping that the upcoming budget will introduce measures to support growth, boost consumption, and stimulate the investment cycle.
The meeting comes in the backdrop of worries around deceleration of economic growth. The Indian economy grew 6.7 per cent in the June quarter and 5.4 per cent in the July-September period.
The participants shared their views on several issues, including navigating challenges posed by global economic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions, strategies to enhance employment particularly among the youth, and create sustainable job opportunities across sectors.
Suggestions were also made on aligning education and training programmes with the evolving needs of the job market, enhancing agricultural productivity and creating sustainable rural employment opportunities, attracting private investment and mobilising public funds for infrastructure projects to boost economic growth.
Suggestions were also made for promoting financial inclusion and boosting exports and attracting foreign investment, as per the statement.
Renowned economists and analysts present at the interaction included Surjit S Bhalla, Ashok Gulati, Sudipto Mundle, Dharmakirti Joshi, Janmejaya Sinha, Madan Sabnavis, Amita Batra, Ridham Desai, Chetan Ghate, Bharat Ramaswami, Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Siddhartha Sanyal, Laveesh Bhandari, Rajani Sinha, Keshab Das, Pritam Banerjee, Rahul Bajoria, Nikhil Gupta, and Shashwat Alok, the statement added.