If you were to believe most of the TV anchors or opposition spokespersons, or “Intellectuals” who are fundamentally opposed to Narendra Modi and the BJP, Indian taxpayers or the middle class (WE THE PEOPLE) don’t want to drink clean water, we don’t want affordable housing, we don’t use roads or highways, we don’t travel by train or aeroplanes and therefore don’t use railway stations or airports, we don’t need 5G telecom networks, we don’t ant world-class educational institutions, or world-class tourism infrastructure.
As per these people, all we care about is a ₹5000 tax break. Even after getting huge tax breaks just four months ago. Or about a ₹2 hike in petrol or diesel prices.
WHAT PURE RUBBISH.
I am amazed to see how these supposedly educated people can be so pessimistic about everything.
Why are people challenging that India can become a $5 trillion economy (₹375 lakh crores at an exchange rate of $1 = ₹75). Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman didn’t give a date by when we would achieve this. Her exact words were “…in a few years.” I couldn’t control my laughter when an educated TV anchor said that India needs to grow at 18% p.a. to become a $5 trillion economy.
Maybe they don’t understand the meaning of CAGR (compounded annual growth rate). I have crunched the numbers. At a GDP growth rate of 7% CAGR, India WILL become a $5 trillion economy by 2027; at 8% we WILL achieve this milestone by 2026. Don’t both these years come within the definition of “…in a few years”? Are 7% or 8% growth rates difficult to achieve?
In 2015, the US Department of Agriculture (Ministry of Agriculture) forecasted that India will have a GDP of $6.593 trillion (₹494.5 lakh crores) by 2030. This will happen with a 7.71% CAGR. Global “Big 4” accounting firm PwC predicted in February 2017 that India will be the world’s second largest economy by 2050, with a GDP of $44.128 trillion (₹3310 lakh crores). This will need a CAGR of 9.165%. It seems that the foreigners are more bullish about India than our own countrymen.
NDTV 24×7 asked how the Government of India will invest ₹100 lakh crores ($1.33 trillion) in infrastructure, when the investment in 2019-20 is only budgeted at ₹7.5 lakh crores ($100 billion). Let me try to answer this question. If the ₹7.5 lakh crores investment goes up by 14.4% every year – which is very feasible considering that tax collections are growing at about this rate – the Government of India will ALONE invest ₹50 lakh crores in five years. What about the balance? It will come from private investments, obviously. In how many countries do governments invest 100% of the sum? I can’t think of any countries other than North Korea or maybe Vietnam. Can you imagine the number of jobs this kind of mammoth investment will create?
Aren’t electric vehicles (EVs) important? Can you imagine what kind of money the country will save on importing fuel?
For years, I have heard Congress Finance Ministers spend the most part of their budget speech in giving itemised details of items on which customs or excise duties have gone up or down? For 71 years, the governments of the day (including Modi 1.0) could not think about the most basic necessity for all of us – DRINKING WATER.
In the last five years, this government has delivered on many fronts – toilets, roads, highways, railway safety, clean cooking gas, electricity to all, LED bulbs, and a whole lot more. It showed us that it delivers what it promises. If it can give Housing for All by 2022 and Clean Drinking Water to All by 2024, BJP will come back with 365+ seats on its own, and 400+ seats for NDA in 2024, and the opposition will be stunned like the Pakistan cricket team was in their match against Team India.
Sometimes I pity those who become anti-India while trying very hard to be anti-Modi.