The Institute for Competitiveness (IFC) has just launched a report titled ‘Competitiveness Roadmap for India@100’. It was launched in collaboration with EAC-PM (Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister). Twenty five years ago, it was 1997. If we cast our minds back, in 1997, it would have been impossible for anyone to fully anticipate or predict changes and transformations that India has been through in the last twenty five years. In 2003, Goldman Sachs produced a report titled ‘Dreaming with BRICs: The Path to 2050’.

If India grows at 5.5% now, gloom and doom will descend. There is consensus that India’s real growth will be between 7% and 7.5%. The global economic environment is relatively more malign and uncertain, compared to earlier decades, when many countries used exports as an engine to drive growth. Covidya: Is there sufficient steam in the other three drivers of growth to ensure between 7% and 7.5%? That requires efficient labour, land and capital markets, largely a state government function. It requires states to increase their GSDP (gross state domestic product) growth rates, since all-India growth is almost entirely a function of how states grow, and that will also grow with our tremendous effort.

And we believe on our potential. Jai Hind…