India is on track to become a USD 10 trillion economy in the coming years and take the third-largest slot globally, World Economic Forum (WEF) President Borge Brende has said.
Speaking to the Press Trust of India in an exclusive interview on February 22, Brende described the country as a place with “optimism” not seen elsewhere in “a very fragmented and polarised world”. He was in New Delhi to participate in the ‘Raisina Dialogue 2024’, held on February 21-23, 2024, organised by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.
He said that the World Economic Forum hoped to come back to the country with the WEF India Summit in collaboration with the Government of India when the time was ripe.
“The Indian economy is the fastest growing among all large economies of the world. We saw in Davos this year that there was a huge interest in India and I think this will only continue,” Brende said.
The Geneva-based WEF, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation, holds its annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos every year in January.
Brende said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “always very, very welcome to Davos”.
Generally speaking about the country, he said, “When you come to India, you feel some optimism, which is not the case all over the world. We are facing a geopolitical recession, a very fragmented and polarised world, but still there are areas where we can collaborate and it is important to find those areas.”
Brende said that it was necessary to underline that the overall economic growth was not so bad, especially in the case of India where “we are seeing 7 per cent economic growth and the world’s largest economy, the US, which is also doing very well”.
On India setting the target of becoming the third largest economy in the next 2-3 years, Brende said that the country was on track to become a USD 10 trillion economy in the coming years.
“India has gone through important reforms and it is well placed vis-à-vis the two largest economies, the US and China. Also, India is seeing a good increase in foreign direct investments, [and] a lot of manufacturing activities are now taking place in India [that] used to happen in other emerging economies,” said the WEF chief.
He lauded India’s digital competitiveness and said that digital trade was growing much faster than traditional goods in the world today. “India is well placed and it is just a question of time before India becomes the third largest economy in the world after the US and China,” he said.
Larger Indian footprint on the global diplomatic scene
On India’s role in handling geopolitical conflicts, Brende said, “We will see a larger and larger Indian footprint on the global diplomatic scene in the years to come.”
Referring to the fact that India had focused on securing economic growth and lifting people out of poverty, he added, “I think India has also stayed away from any knee-jerk reactions on geopolitical issues. It’s not an easy neighbourhood in Asia, but India has dealt with situations very well and we do not see any conflicts in this region as we have seen in places like Ukraine and the Middle East.”
Brende said that India was an important country when it came to digitalisation, with 1.4 billion people with digital IDs, linked bank accounts, and effective payment systems.
“At the same time, the advent of new technologies raises concerns. While there are big opportunities presented by generative AI, there are also threats in the form of deepfakes and increased cyber attacks. So, it is very necessary to be vigilant and also have policies for that,” he said.