NEW DELHI: Even as India’s growth is expected to contract by a double-digit figure this fiscal, top industrialist Gautam Adani has debunked the narrow fixation on GDP numbers. According to Adani, whose company recently bought majority stake in Mumbai International Airport, India will be the second-largest economy by 2050 and has an edge over global peers in terms of business opportunities.He also feels Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Aatma Nirbhar Bharat programme will be a game-changer for India.
“For the sake of the fans of the GDP metric, let’s look at some statistics. The global GDP in 1990 was $38 trillion. Today, 30 years later, this number is $90 trillion. Projecting for another 30 years, in 2050 the global GDP is expected to be about $170 trillion with India becoming the second-largest economy in the world,” said Adani while speaking at the JP Morgan India Summit.
India’s GDP number has seen year-on-year contraction since the last four years. The economy shrunk by a record 23.9 per cent in the April-June quarter because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the steepest fall posted by any major economies. Adani said that short-term setbacks due to a global crisis cannot be used to write off the country as its fundamentals remain intact.
Adani added that India will needs $1.5-2 trillion of capital over the next decade but despite key structural reforms such as the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund and Credit Enhancement Fund, capital structure challenges, and lack of empowered and independent regulators remain bottlenecks to nation-building and investment opportunities. “In my view... an alignment with the government’s business agenda is what creates the greatest value,” he said.