Never before has the Indian economy sustained close to 9 per cent growth year after year for so long. Most projections suggest that we should be able to sustain this rate into the medium term.

It is important to appreciate that this acceleration of growth is not a flash in the pan. There has been an increase in our gross investment and savings rate, particularly in the last three years. I believe this will be sustained into the foreseeable future because of the demographic transition underway. India is a country of young people. It will remain so for some time to come. The generation of savers outnumbers the generation of dis-savers.

Secondly, our growth process is largely based on growing domestic consumption. Ours is not an export-led growth model. Nor are we a mercantilist economy pursuing beggar-thy-neighbour trade policies. India’s growth process is based not only on an expansion of the home market, but also largely on the rise of domestic enterprise. The economic reforms of 1991 unleashed a new era of entrepreneurial growth in India.

However, I do believe that we have a long road to travel before we can claim to have fulfilled Mahatma Gandhi’s prayer to wipe the last tear from the poorest of the poor. Our government has been committed to making the growth process more socially inclusive.

We have launched a number of initiatives to step up investment in agriculture and rural development, in education and health care, in urban renewal and poverty removal, in rural infrastructure and in rural employment generation. We remain concerned about inter-regional disparities in development. The 9 per cent growth rate is an average of over 10 per cent in some parts of India and under 3 per cent in others. Large continental economies are bound to have inter-regional disparities. However, we cannot afford to see this gap between our developed and backward regions persist.

... contd.