Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that economic reforms will shift India's profile from the current emerging economy to a "more developed" economy. One such key reform that the Modi government is unable to push is the indirect tax legislation, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.
India, which is Asia's third-largest economy, retained its fastest-growing economy tag when it released March 2016 quarter growth data that showed the country's GDP grew at 7.9 percent.
"India will maintain this paramount position of fastest growing economy in the world. And if we did that we can present yourself as a society which evolves from an emerging economy and moves towards a more developed economy," Jaiitley said while delivering a lecture at the Osaka University on Thursday, reported PTI.
He said that sticking to the reforms path will unleash the country's growth potential.
"For India to realise its full potential for the next few decades, India certainly needs to pursue its programme for economic growth more vigorously and it's only then by maintaining higher level of growth that we can attract best response as far as poverty alleviation is concerned," Jaitley, currently on a six-day visit to Japan, said.
He spoke that India's economic policies have enabled to overcome two straight years of drought and emerge as the world's fastest-growing economy.
Jaitley said he met many Japanese investors during his ongoing visit and found pension and sovereign funds "very seriously looking at India as a possible destination."
India pipped China to emerge as the world's top foreign direct investment (FDI) destination in 2015. The world's third-largest economy received $63 billion during the year, 11.30 percent more than $56.6 billion FDI in China, according to a report by fDi Intelligence, a division of the Financial Times.
