India maintained healthy growth rate despite global economic, political volatility: CEA

India has managed to maintain a healthy growth rate despite global economic and political volatility, which is a creditable achievement, said Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) V Anantha Nageswaran.

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“The global context has become uncertain and complex. Economic and political conditions have turned unfavourable for growth. Given these situations, the Indian economy has maintained a good growth rate in 2024-25 at 6.5 per cent,” Nageswaran said while speaking to news agency ANI. 

He said the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict might not be very good for India, adding that the global growth drop could also stretch on for several years. 

Notably, the deadly conflict between Iran and Israel entered its sixth day on Wednesday. As per the reports, Tehran has claimed to have fired hypersonic Fattah-1 missiles at Israel in the latest round of overnight strikes, hours after Donald Trump demanded the Islamic Republic’s “unconditional surrender”. 

On the war’s impact on India, the CEA refused to equate the impact of the current situation with the 2008 global financial crisis. Nageswaran stated that if India were able to move faster, with more dynamism, the growth rate could improve even further. 

Nageswaran noted that the gap between India’s growth rate and that of developed economies is now significantly wider than it was during the 2003-08 high-growth phase, when India expanded at 8-9 per cent.

“We may not have a big growth drop like it happened in 2009 globally… This time, it could be a slow-moving event that lasts several years. In some sense, its average impact may be more than the 2008 global crisis, but it will be spread out over many years,” he said. 

Highlighting the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Nageswaran described it as a key driver of self-reliance and manufacturing competitiveness.

“The PLI scheme has done well. It has improved our sense of ‘aatmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) in many sectors. From nothing to today, we are exporting between USD 10 billion and USD 15 billion worth of mobile phones,” he said.

Launched in 2020, India’s Rs 1.97 lakh crore PLI Scheme is reshaping India’s manufacturing sector, driving investment, exports, and job creation across 14 key sectors. 

From mobiles to solar, drones to pharma, it’s powering India’s journey to become a global factory under PM Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision.