Taking a swipe at former finance minister P Chidambaram, who made remarks that India will become the third largest economy in the world no matter who becomes the prime minister, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman countered and asked why the country's ranking in terms of GDP grew up by just two ranks during 2004–2014.
Arithmetic Inevitability
As per reports, Chidambaram had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was "turning an arithmetic inevitability into a guarantee".
"Arithmetic inevitability, but my time (Congress time) it (the economy) went up and down and up and down, and in 10 years I could manage to bring it up by about two ranks only.
In ten years, Modi showed it can jump five ranks, and within two more, probably, it will go up to third rank," Sitharaman responded on Monday morning, speaking at a Viksit Bharat Ambassador,Campus Dialogue held at GITAM University in Vishakapatnam.
"So it is a constant fight against forces that are undermining us, the people of India." She termed the "arithmetic inevitability" remarks as "misleading" and explained her rationale. "Before 2014, ten years was completely a lost decade, because of bad policies, Looking the other way, when massive corruption was happening, the economy had literally gone down where it was back in 2004," she said.
Economic Liberalization Did Not Benefit
India's GDP is currently ranked 5th, after the US, China, Germany, and Japan.
Finance Minister Sitharaman said that India's GDP must expand to cater to the demands of the people Further, Sitharaman noted that 1991 was a milestone in India's history, which helped India open up its economy, but asserted that the economic liberalization did not benefit India as much as it should have.
Giving a gist of innovation and development in India, he outlined that over 1 lakh patents were granted in 2023–24, the highest ever, a record-breaking copyright registration of over 36,000, a three-fold increase in Geographical Indication registration, and the highest ever design registration.
Students questioned her during the discussion about the industries she believed would have the most potential and growth in the future. She spoke of several sectors, including renewables, advanced chemistry, green hydrogen, AI, agro-processing, and fintech
