India needs 20 years to become a developed nation: former RBI chief

Hyderabad: While speaking at the 12th Convocation of ICFAI Foundation for Higher education on Saturday, the former RBI Governor C Rangarajan said that for India to be classified as a developed country, the per capita income will have to be at a minimum of USD 13,205 and that will take more than two decades of strong growth of between 8 to 9 per cent to achieve it.

Further, he pointed out that, at aggregate output level, India is the fifth largest economy in the world. Praising it as an impressive achievement, he cited that in terms of per capita income, India's rank according to IMF is 142 out of 197 countries.

"Even after a minimum five years of sustained growth of 9 per cent, India's per capita income will be only USD 3472 and we will still be classified as a lower middle income country,” he noted.

“We have thus to go a long way. This only shows we must certainly need to run fast,” the former chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister said.

He reiterated the need to lay down a clear roadmap for India's future development, considering economic situations post Covid-19 and post Russia–Ukraine war.

Initially, there is need to raise the growth rate to seven per cent and then follow it up with a growth rate of eight to nine per cent which is possible and India has showed in the past it can have that kind of growth rate over a sustained period of six to seven years, he said.

Source: PTI