Services, agri key to make India USD 5 trn economy: Prabhu

The Commerce Ministry today said the country can become a USD 5 trillion economy in the next seven to eight years with the major contribution by services, industries and agricultural sector.

It said that of the USD 5 trillion figure, services sector could contribute about USD 3 trillion, while industries and agricultural sectors could account for USD 1 trillion each.

This was discussed during the first meeting of the Working Group on making India a USD 5 trillion economy yesterday.

The meeting was chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, who pointed out that the present USD 2.6 trillion Indian economy will become a USD 5 trillion in due course.

"The key was the timeline within which it will be achieved. The objective of constituting the Working Group was to chart out this timeline, along with suitable strategies to achieve the same," the ministry said in a statement.

It was decided to set up smaller groups to work out the sectoral targets and the roadmap ahead, it said.

It added that the key points highlighted in the meeting include that India has the largest population of millennials and it was crucial to fulfil their aspirations by creating appropriate physical and social infrastructure.

Several tier-II cities need to be created to make growth more inclusive.

"Growth of GDP will come from four items -- Government expenditure, Private Expenditure, Investment and Exports, " it said adding Strategies under each need to be carried out on the ground.

Greater private investment in infrastructure and asset recycling by moving towards private ownership of assets like ports, airports, bus operations needs to be encouraged, it said adding the growth needs to come from the Indian States and further below from the districts too?