Mumbai: India is likely to become a $40 trillion economy by 2047 — a 13-fold jump from its current size — driven primarily by a clean energy revolution and digitalisation, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said.
Ambani’s estimate for the Indian economy, currently the fifth largest in the world behind only the US, China, Japan and Germany, is more optimistic than Asia’s richest man Gautam Adani, who last week stated that India will become a $30 trillion economy by 2050 on back of rising consumption and socio-economic reforms.
“From a 3 trillion-dollar economy, India will grow to become a 40 trillion-dollar economy by 2047, ranking among the top three economies of the world,” Ambani said at the 10th convocation of Pandit Deendayal Energy University in Gandhinagar.
As the ‘Amrit Kaal’ — the period between now and 2047 when India will be celebrating 100 years of independence — unfolds, the country will witness an unprecedented explosion in economic growth and opportunities, he asserted.
“Three game-changing revolutions will govern India’s growth in the decades ahead,” he said. “The clean energy revolution, the bio-energy revolution and the digital revolution.”
Ambani’s oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd has a finger in each of the pies as it invests billions of dollars in creating a clean energy value chain from solar panels to hydrogen. His Jio disrupted the telecom sector, offering free voice calls and dirt-cheap data which played the role of a catalyst in bringing about the digital revolution in the country.
“While the clean energy revolution and the bio-energy revolution will produce energy sustainably, the digital revolution will enable us to consume energy efficiently,” Ambani said. “All three revolutions will together help India and the world save our beautiful planet from the climate crisis. “
To the students, he gave them three mantras of success — think big, think green and think digital.
UK to be second weakest performer of world’s big economies next year
Paris: The UK will be the second weakest performer among the world’s big economies next year as the global economy continues to suffer the knock-on effects of the biggest energy shock in four decades, a leading international institution has warned, according to a media report.
The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said of the members of the G20 group of leading developed and developing nations, only Russia would suffer a bigger contraction than Britain in 2023, The Guardian reported
In its half-yearly economic outlook, the OECD said that UK’s economy would expand by 4.4 per cent this year – the sixth fastest in the G20 – but contract by 0.4 per cent next year.
Although most countries have had their growth forecasts cut by the OECD since June, only Russia’s 5.6 per cent contraction is forecast to be more severe than Britain’s. The poor performance is forecast to continue in 2024 with expansion of 0.2 per cent — the joint weakest alongside Russia, The Guardian reported.
The OECD’s acting chief economist, Alvaro Pereira, said he was expecting a less severe downturn next year than the 1.4 per cent decline pencilled in by the Office for Budget Responsibility in last week’s autumn statement, but a more subdued recovery in 2024 than the OBR has pencilled in.
Pereira said the OECD thought interest rates would peak at a lower level than the OBR is anticipating, and that the UK would suffer a four-quarter recession ending in the middle of 2023.
Overall, the OECD expects growth across its 38 rich-country members to be 0.8 per cent in 2023 – half the level expected six months ago.
The US and the Eurozone are forecast to expand by 0.5 per cent, but growth is expected to be stronger in three big Asian economies – China (4.6 per cent), Indonesia (4.7 per cent) and India (5.7 per cent), The Guardian reported.
