Economic growth to exceed 6.3%: Montek

India will grow at more than 6.3 per cent exceeding the Planning Commission's forecast as the impact of drought would not be as bad as anticipated earlier, the Commission's Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.    

"I am not revising the original forecast (of 6.3 per cent), the Planning Commission had made...But now I am eliminating the downside possibility of that forecast", Ahluwalia told reporters here.

The Planning Commission had projected a growth rate of 6.3 per cent for the current fiscal in its report on the status of the economy presented to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 1.     

Although drought continues to be a matter of concern, "it will have probably (have) less of negative effect than was originally thought. There are signs of revival in the rest of economy", Ahluwalia said.     

As regard other important agencies, the Reserve Bank in its monetary policy had projected six per cent economic growth for the current fiscal with upward bias. The Delhi-based economic think tank National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) expects the economy to expand by 7 per cent.     

Having grown by 9 per cent for three consecutive years, the economic growth slipped to 6.7 per cent during 2008-09 on account of the impact of the global financial meltdown. The economic growth during the first quarter (April-June 2009-10) of the current fiscal was 6.1 per cent.