Hailing India’s 7.8 per cent GDP growth in the first quarter of this fiscal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was indicative of the country swiftly moving towards becoming the world’s third-largest economy.
At the Semicon India 2025 conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, the PM affirmed that India had, once again, “outperformed every expectation, every estimate, and every forecast”.
The better-than-expected economic performance of the country came amidst global uncertainties and "aarthik swarth se paida hue chunautiya" (challenges stemming from economic self-interest), the PM said, in what appeared to be a veiled rebuttal to US President Donald Trump’s recent jibe at the Indian economy being “dead”.
The Trump-imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Indian exports to the US came into effect recently on August 27.
Meanwhile, in the first quarter as well as the 2024-25 FY (April 2024 to March 2025 fiscal) and years proceedings it, India has remained the world's fastest-growing major economy, outshining even China and the US economy, the latter having grown at only 3.3 per cent in April-June.
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Announcing "next-generation reforms”, PM Modi added, "In the coming times, we are going to begin a new phase of next-generation reforms”.
Although he did not spell out the reforms planned, he may have been hinting at the GST (Goods and Services Tax) rejig that may put in place massive tax cuts. The GST Council will be meeting on September 3 and 4 to propose the pruning of rates.
Emphasising on the growth that is visible across manufacturing, services, agriculture, and construction sectors, the Prime Minister also said the “enthusiasm” is evident everywhere, and said that “India's rapid growth is infusing new energy across industries and among every citizen”.
Since January, Trump has launched a broad global tariff programme, slapping higher rates on imports from countries with which his administration had political grievances. Besides India, only Brazil has been slapped with a 50 per cent tariff.
Amidst talks of India and the US being open to dialogue, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, reiterated on Tuesday his government’s engagement with the US administration on the bilateral trade agreement, saying, "Lots happen, lots more to go...With the US, we are in dialogue with them on a BTA".
India has already inked free trade agreements with Australia, the UAE, Mauritius, the UK and the four-European nation bloc EFTA, he added.
The US and India have been negotiating the pact since March. So far, five rounds of talks have been completed and the US team deferred its visit to India for the next round of talks, which was scheduled from August 25.
So far, no new dates have been finalised for the sixth round of negotiations.
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