India needs to grow over 8 pc a year to become USD 5-trillion economy by 2024-25: Amitabh Kant

India needs to grow at over 8 per cent annually to become a USD 5-trillion economy by 2024-25, Niti Aayog Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amitabh Kant said on Monday. Speaking at an event organised by IILM Institute For Higher Education, Kant said economic growth is driven by the private sector, so India needs to create right environment for the private sector investment.

"We are growing at about 7 per cent per annum, the challenge is now to accelerate the growth. We need to grow 8 per cent plus year after year to become USD 5 trillion economy by 2024-25," he said.

Noting that no country in the world has grown without penetrating global markets, Kant said exports hold key to the country's economic growth.


The Niti Aayog CEO insisted that India needs to continue opening up its economy and the country should push aggressively for globalisation.

Kant also said India needs to get into sunrise areas of industries, whether it is electric vehicle (EV) or battery manufacturing .

"In the EV sector, 20 Indian start-ups are driving EV movement," he said.

The Niti Aayog CEO said India has taken many structural reforms such as goods and services tax, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code and direct benefit transfer (DBT). "A total of Rs 90,000 crore has been saved by the government due to DBT," Kant said.

India is also facing several challenges, he said, adding that there is a huge gender disparity in India, so we need to focus on health and education of girls.