India’s GDP now stands at USD 2.5 trillion, making it the sixth largest economy in the world. (Image: Reuters)

With various world leaders and leading Indian industrialists saying that India can grow to become a $10 trillion economy in just over a decade, the country will need a slew of efforts to reach the magical GDP figure by 2030. While the figure may seem out of reach at first, it is intriguing to note that India’s GDP now stands at $2.5 trillion, the sixth largest in the world. At Hindustan Leadership Summit held in December-17, leading Industrialist Mukesh Ambani pointed out that India was a $500 billion economy just 134 years ago. “Today, India’s GDP is $2.5 trillion, and the country is ranked sixth in the world. To me, there is nothing surprising about the rise,” Mukesh Ambani said. Given the astronomical rise and India’s potential, we take a look at six things which could propel India to reach greater heights, and breach the $10 trillion GDP figure by 2030.

Invest in Technology

According to Mukesh Ambani, India has the ability to lead the fourth industrial revolution. Interestingly, Ambani says that while India missed out in the first three revolutions of mechanisation, mass production and automation, India has an excellent opportunity to lead the fourth Industrial revolution by adopting the latest technology with the advent of data, connectivity and artificial intelligence. Doing this, the country will be able to achieve much more in the next 30 years, than what it has achieved in the last 300 years.

Skill Workforce

Skilling the burgeoning workforce should be top priority in the country. Dominic Barton, global managing partner of McKinsey & Co pointed out in the ET Global Business Summit that with more than 120 million people joining the workforce in the country, skilling them in a short span is the need of the hour. And this cannot be achieved by conventional education, as time is of essence. Barton believes that India must look at online courses that have been adopted successfully across the world, so as to reduce the time frame.

Unleash the potential of e-commerce

In a growing market like India, e-commerce has infinite potential. Taking note of India’s growth in e-commerce, Naspers CEO Bob Van Dijk said at the ET Global Business Summit that while 10 years ago in 2008, India had about 10 million Internet users, the user base has now overtaken the United States and stands at 300-400 million. According to the expert, the size of opportunity in e-commerce alone is 10 times in 10 years!

Entrepreneurship

Leading industrialists point out that if India must grow, the country will have to nurture its entrepreneurial spirit. Anil Agarwal, the founder of Vedanta Resources says that a lot of credit for the country’s growth must be given to entrepreneurs. According to him, entrepreneurship is in the DNA of India. Comparing India’s startup culture to the United States, Anil Agarwal said that a lot of entrepreneurs in California are from India.

Improve ease of doing business

While a 30 point jump in World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings comes as welcome news for India, top industrialists observe that a sustained effort in that direction by the incumbent government will be needed to achieve the ambitious goal of breaching the $10 trillion GDP figure by 2030. Dominic Barton says that consistency is the need of the hour, and cautioned against a change in policies by any new governments in the future.

Infrastructure Push

If India truly wants to be on top, it must invest heavily into its infrastructure. According to a recent CRISIL report, India needs to spend at least Rs 50 lakh crore in next five years through the year 2022 to develop infrastructure, implying that the country will see close to Rs 3,000 crore investment per day.