Washington: The latest union budget reinforces India’s strong growth momentum and sends positive signals on trade and investment, US-based economists and business leaders said Sunday, and urged a sharper push on manufacturing competitiveness.
Steve Hanke, professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, said India’s economic performance under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was no surprise.
“It’s no surprise that Modi is the most popular major politician in the world,” Hanke said.
He cited International Monetary Fund projections that estimate India’s annual real GDP growth at about 6.45 per cent between 2025 and 2030, the fastest among major economies.
Hanke linked India’s outlook to trade and growth-oriented policies, saying strong expansion would continue to attract global attention and capital.
Separately, Gunjan Bagla, CEO of Amritt, a US-India consultancy based in Los Angeles, said the budget represents an incremental step in the right direction from an international trade and investment perspective.
He said the nine percent increase in infrastructure investment would help foreign trade over time by improving logistics and connectivity.
Bagla also welcomed the 15 per cent increase in defence spending, saying it would enable India’s armed services to be more prepared against threats, while noting that hardware vulnerabilities remain.
He said the budget’s emphasis on manufacturing was positive but not ambitious enough.
“Indian manufacturers would have benefited from a more aggressive push across all sectors,” Bagla said, adding that broader support would help Indian factories compete more effectively with China.
Bagla said Indian entrepreneurs have built remarkable companies over the past 20 years and that many more could emerge as global players with the right policy framework.
“Manufacturing can create hundreds of millions of jobs in India,” he said.
He added that the global economy needs to see India not only as a fast-growing market but as a manufacturing superpower.
(IANS)
