Modi Ministers: $30 trillion Indian economy in 3 decades, energy independence by 2047

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By Manish Anand

New Delhi, July 4: Close on the heels of the Union Minister Piyush Goyal projecting India to be a USD 30 trillion economy in the next three decades, his Cabinet colleague Hardeep Singh Puri is hoping that there will be a USD 12-13 industry in the hydrogen energy alone by 2050.

The Ministers in the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre seem confident that Indian economy would grow 10 times in the next three decades.

Union Minister for Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal last week while giving a speech at a textile conference in Tamil Nadu had said that India would be a USD 30 trillion economy soon. Later, it emerged that ‘very soon’ meant 30 years.

So, Goyal expected India to be a USD 30 trillion economy by 2052.

“The stakeholders deliberated upon ways to develop the entire green hydrogen ecosystem in a way that India is able to realise country’s full potential to create a $12-13 trillion industry by 2050 and transform into a dominant global energy supplier,” said the government in an official statement on Monday after Puri presided over a stakeholders meeting on green hydrogen.

The principal author of the slogan of India becoming a USD 5 trillion economy, Amitabh Kant, has exited the Modi government after the completion of his six years stint with the NITI Aayog as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The target to reach the USD 5 trillion economy was apparently first said to have been 2024-25, but later explained that it would be by 2026-27.

So, the Modi Ministers are convinced that India in a span of 23 years would multiply its economy by six times.

In 2014 when Modi became the Prime Minister of the country the size of the Indian economy was USD 2.039 trillion.

In 2019 when Modi took oath as the Prime Minister for the country for the second term the size of the Indian economy was USD 2.871 trillion.

In five years during the first term of the Modi government, the size of the Indian economy hadn’t grown by half or 50 per cent.

The World Bank in fact had pegged that while the Indian economy had risen to USD 2.9 trillion in 2019, it fell to USD 2.7 trillion in 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic struck the country.

Indian economy currently is said to be at about USD 3.5 trillion, and the last quarter GDP growth had come at 4.1 per cent, while the whole year projection for the ongoing financial year has been pegged at 7.2 per cent, as stated by the Reserve bank of India.

While the Modi government is without an economist as an advisor who can command unqualified respect from the economic critics, with the first vice-chairman of the NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya, being the lone such to have worked in the ruling dispensation, the Cabinet Ministers definitely seem gung ho to multiply the size of the economy by a factor of their choice while talking far into the future.

The Indian economy is facing the double whammy of the global inflation squeezing out the capital from the country, while the high crude oil prices have pushed the Centre to the wall, forcing the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on June 30 to announce additional excise duty on the export of the petro-products, cess on the domestic crude and an additional import duty on Gold.

Puri’s optimism is based on his assessment that Green Hydrogen will overcome the challenges that were faced by the fossil fuel industry.

“It will provide momentum to India’s journey towards energy independence by 2047. We are spending Rs 12 lakh crores to import the energy. So, we have to push the green hydrogen as an alternative source of energy,” said Puri on Monday.