NEW DELHI: India has come a long way since the liberalisation process started in early 1990s. The external payment crisis at that time had dragged India to IMF door. Inflation was hovering at a peak of 16.7 per cent in August 1991, while foreign currency assets were barely enough for two weeks of imports and Gulf crisis had just 1990 exacerbated the fiscal situation.In the words of then Union Finance Minister, Manmohan Singh , the crisis was both acute and deep.Today, economists and analysts are debating over a fiscal deficit number of 3 per cent of GDP for FY19, while back then in 1990-91, it was as high as 8.4 per cent of GDP.“People must be prepared to make necessary sacrifices to preserve our economic independence and restore the health of our economy,” Singh said in his historic 1991-92 Budget speech.There was no time to lose. "Neither the Government nor the economy can live beyond its means year after year. Any further postponement of macroeconomic adjustment, long overdue, would mean that the balance of payments situation, now exceedingly difficult, would become unmanageable and inflation, already high, would exceed limits of tolerance," Singh said in his speech.It's been nearly three decades since then, and the country has taken a leap. Data showed India's forex reserves were at record high levels at the end of January, the economy was looking up after three years of disruptions. Per capital income was rising, inflation is low and within manageable limits and trade is catching up.Prime Minister Modi is projecting India as the 'global power ready for a leadership role'. Before Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tables his last full Budget for FY2018-19, we look back to see at how India grew on different parameters and draw enough confidence to aim for a $5 trillion economy by 2025.At $2.3 trillion, the Indian economy has grown nearly 9 times since 1991. In 1991, India’s GDP stood at $266 billion. Agriculture, which accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the total GDP in 1991, now accounts for 17.4 per cent of the economy. The services sector contributes nearly 54 per cent to domestic GDP (from 39 per cent in 1991), while the industry sector's contribution to GDP stands at 29 per cent now against 30 in 1991. By 2007, the contribution of industry to GDP had risen to 34 per cent before falling in the subsequent years.India today is at eighth position among countries holding highest foreign exchange reserves. India's foreign exchange reserves reached a record level of about $432 billion (spot and forward) at end-December 2017, well above prudent norms. It took just over three years for forex reserves to swell from $300 billion in April 2014 to $400 billion in September 2017. India had forex reserves of Rs 2,500 crore ($1.1 billion) when the then FM Manmohan Singh delivered his 1991-92 Budget speech.The size of India's Budget for 2017-18 was huge at Rs 21.47 lakh crore. To get some perspective, the Budget size for the ongoing year was 14 per cent of the market value of all listed companies on BSE. In the 1991-92, the Budget made provision for total expenditure of Rs 1.13 lakh crore of which Rs 79,697 crore was non-plan expenditure and Rs 33,725 crore is plan expenditure.India's per capita income swelled to $1,709.60 by 2016, latest data available with World Bank showed. This was 5.6 times the $300.10 per capita India had in 1991. Neighbour China had a similar $333.10 per capital in 1991, but it managed to grow its per capital income 24 times to $8,123.20 by 2016 during the same periodAccording to World Bank data, India’s domestic savings as a percentage of GDP stood at 24.3 per cent in 1991, which moved up to as high as 38.3 per cent in 2007 before seeing a sharp fall in the recent years. The Economy Survey for 2017 noted that the savings-to-GDP ratio stood at 29 per cent in 2016, which was a bit low, but the government may give emphasis on investments in the coming Budget rather than the savings."Since investment slowdowns are more detrimental to growth than savings slowdown, so, policy priorities over the short run have focused on reviving investment by mobilising saving, via attempts to unearth black money and encouraging the conversion of gold into financial saving. The share of financial saving is already rising in aggregate household saving - with a clear shift visible towards market instruments," the Economic Survey said.India's CPI inflation rules at 4 per cent. However, this was not the case in 1990s, when Inflation was in double digits. As suggested above, inflation was as high of 16.7 per cent in August 1991. It was in double digits in 1998 as well. Between 2009 and 2012, higher commodity prices due to a surge in demand in China pushed inflation beyond comfortable level. For last few years, inflation has remained low. Analysts feel we may see a rise in inflation going ahead on a lower base. Average CPI inflation for the first nine months has averaged 3.2 per cent and is projected to reach 3.7 per cent for the year as a whole, the Economic Survey 2018 suggested.India's population grew to 131 crore from 84.6 crore in 1991. Life expectancy has improved from 59 years to 67.5 years, while maternal mortality has fallen to 167 in 1000 from 556 in 1990. Under 5-year mortality rate to has declined to 48 from 126 per 1,000 births. Child sex ratio i.e. females per 1000 males, has deteriorated to 918 from 945 in 1991. As the country gets more educated, number of children expected to be born per woman during her entire space of reproductive age has fallen to 2.4 from 3.6. The hare of food in consumer expenditure is down from 63 per cent to 49 per cent, while the percentage of poor as per government records too has fallen. Population is growing at 1.64 per cent against 2.16 per cent in 1991, while literacy rate has climbed to 73 from 52.11. Number of doctors has jumped three times to 9.59 lakh from 3.65 lakh. Infant mortality rate has declined from 80 to 40 level.