President Ram Nath Kovind (left) and Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg at the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra) President Ram Nath Kovind (left) and Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg at the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India in New Delhi on Saturday. (Express Photo by Amit Mehra)

Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg on Saturday said that 8 per cent growth for the Indian economy is “very much achievable”, and it is expected to be the world’s third largest economy by 2030 with Gross Domestic Product worth $10 trillion. The country’s GDP grew at a 7.7 per cent in the January-March quarter, helped by higher government spending and private consumption.

“Good days are ahead and lot of good work is happening in the economy. The economy is on a stage of take off where Indians can legitimately hold their heads high,” he said.

In the first 40 years of independence, the country hardly grew at 3.5 per cent and today, 7-8 per cent is the norm, Garg said at the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India.

“By 2030, we can legitimately expect to be a $10 trillion economy. That is the challenge. That is also the opportunity,” he said.

“Eight per cent growth is very much achievable… If we keep that… we can look forward to be an Indian economy of $10 trillion which would be the third largest economy in the world,” Garg said.

His comments also come close on the heels of latest World Bank data showing that the country emerged as the sixth largest economy in the world, surpassing France, in 2017.

In 2017, India became the sixth largest economy with a GDP of $2.59 trillion, pushing France to the seventh position, the data showed.

“We expect the Indian economy to be a $1 trillion digital economy by 2022 and going forward… possibly by 2030, the digital economy would be half of the total economy,” he said.

At the same event, President Ram Nath Kovind said cost accountants should help fight abberations of gold plating, while emphasising that they ensure products and services are delivered at a competitive price without compromising on quality.

They should also help improve processes and systems to reduce avoidable costs and “make each rupee that is invested go that much further”, Kovind said.

“It is for cost accountants to ensure that wasteful activities and costs in production are removed. It is for cost accountants to help fight the aberrations of gold plating that may sometimes appear on our business landscape,” he said. All these steps would strengthen the national effort to establishing India as a low-cost and competitive manufacturing hub for world-class products, he said.

Gold plating refers to inflating project costs due to avoidable expenses which are then sought to be passed on to the end-users.

Kovind said that cost accountants are the best managers of the three Ms of a business organisation. “These are — men and women who work there; the materials used as inputs; and the machines deployed for processing, fabrication and creation,” he added.

With PTI inputs

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