India will become a $5 trillion economy by 2024-2025 and a $10 trillion economy by 2030, up from a $2.89 trillion economy pre-Covid, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
Puri, who holds the portfolios of petroleum and natural gas as well as housing and urban affairs, was addressing a session on reviving the economy at the 8th national forum hosted by the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI), a not-for-profit society comprising organisations working in the field of public policy and corporate affairs. He was in conversation with ThePrint Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta.
In 2019, PM Narendra Modi said he wanted India to become a $5 trillion by 2024, but this was before the Covid pandemic took a hit on the global economy. Puri, however, said the pandemic “has produced an entirely different set of growth drivers”.
“There were sectors where we were virtually absent but the pandemic and the vulnerability to the global supply chain made us realise that unless we get our act together we won’t survive,” he added.
He cited the “revival of the health sector, India’s contribution to in-house production of PPEs (personal protective equipment), masks and remdesivir” as examples of growth.