Duvvuri Subba Rao, the former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor has welcomed the current political debate over the issue of providing freebies to the people.

He was speaking on @75 – Marching Towards $5 Trillion Economy on the occasion of 75 years of Indian Independence held at FTCCI on Monday.

“Good that Prime Minister Narendra Modi triggered a debate on state subsidies. All political parties are at fault for the situation. The states and Union government must realise that, we do not have surplus budgets and while some safety net is surely needed, they must be cautious and selective on what freebies to be given from borrowed monies and the future generations should not be burdened with unnecessary debt burden,” he cautioned.

Subba Rao opined that India can emerge a 5 trillion economy only by 2028-29.

“India can become a 5 trillion economy as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi not before 2028-29. Also, for this, we need to clock an annual GDP growth of 9 per cent consistently for the next 5 years,” Subba Rao said.

He listed eight challenges in the journey to achieving a 5 trillion dollar economy.

“These include increasing investment; improving productivity; improving education and health outcomes; creating jobs; raising agriculture productivity; maintaining macroeconomic stability; managing global mega trends and improving governance,” Subba Rao elaborated.

On the occasion, FTCCI has released a booklet of compilation of industrial growth strategy over the last 7.5 decades on the occasion of 75 years of independence.

Taking note of that while India has gained ground in all circles of lives in last 75 years, Rao brought up that 200 million Indians are still under the poverty line which is a concerning thing.

He pushed on the need to bring 600 million individuals in all the development activities. With 2 million job seeking youth entering the work market every year, its just manufacturing sector  which can give occupations of that scale and not the Agriculture, or service sector, he said.

In the event, FTCCI has delivered a booklet of compilation of the industrial growth strategy over the past 7.5. decades on the occasion of 75 years of independence.

(inputs from IANS)