India's road map for $5-trillion economy focusses on growth and ‘all-inclusive welfare’: Finance Ministry

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

finance ministry said on Tuesday. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the road map also relies on a “virtuous cycle of investment and growth”. It also promotes the digital economy and fintech, technology-enabled development, energy transition and climate action, Chaudhary added.

“The government has also focused on a capex-led growth strategy to support economic growth and attract investment from the private sector, increasing its capital investment outlay substantially during the last three years,” Chaudhary said. The International Monetary Fund had earlier said the size of the Indian economy will increase from about $3.5 trillion in FY23 to over $5 trillion in FY27. The central government’s capital expenditure has increased from 2.15% of gross domestic product in FY21 to 2.7% in FY23.

“This strong push given by the government is also expected to crowd in private investment and propel economic growth,” he said. The minister said the government’s road map was put into effect in in 2014 and subsequently major reforms, including Goods and Services Tax (GST), Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, a significant reduction in the corporate tax rate, the Make in India and Start-up India strategies, and production-linked incentive schemes, among others, have been implemented. The Budget for FY24 has taken further steps to sustain the high growth of the economy, he said.

These include a substantial increase in capital investment outlay for the third year in a row to a record Rs 10 lakh crore (3.3% of GDP). “Direct capital investment by the Centre is also complemented by grants-in-aid to states for the creation of capital assets. The ‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ of the Centre was