India Has Bullish Optimistic Growth Trajectory, Says WEF President Borge Brende (Image:X.com/DrSJaishankar)
In an exclusive with the Press Trust of India (PTI), the World Economic Forum (WEF) President Borge Brende, said that he expects a “very bullish, optimistic” growth trajectory for India and that, he could not be so optimistic about global growth. Mr Brende was airing his views on India’s growth trajectory and expectations.
The growth expectation of India stood at six percent, which is the “highest growth of any of the big economies of the world,” while the expectation on the global growth was only “around 2.8 percent”. Mr. Brende ascribed the growth momentum to reforms, less of red tapism, better investment climate and to digital revolution in the country.
When asked if India could be a model for developing countries, he answered in the affirmative, saying that “there is more of a broad ecosystem now of start-ups in India than in any other developing country in the world and it is growing fast and I think it is something hopefully other countries also can be inspired by.” He called the Indian environment as “open”, where start-ups could try, fail and try again.
“When you come to India, you feel some optimism which is not the case all over the world. We are facing a geopolitical recession, a very fragmented and polarised world, but still there are areas where we can collaborate and it is important to find those areas,” Mr. Brende said.
Talking on India in the geopolitical scenario, Mr. Brende said that there could be “a larger Indian footprint on the global diplomatic scene in the years to come,” and “I think India has also stayed away from any knee-jerk reactions on geopolitical issues. It”s not an easy neighbourhood in Asia but India has dealt with situations very well and we do not see any conflicts in this region as we have seen in places like Ukraine and the Middle East,” he added.
He called India’s growth a ‘snow-ball effect,’ that growth will lead to more investments and exponential growth. As he said this, he also touched upon continuing reforms and on the employment front, as India has a young population, the importance for up-skilling, re-skilling and right-skilling of the people were emphasised. As he talked of India on the economic front, there was mention of the pandemic period where India used its resources judiciously unlike some other countries.
WEF is a Geneva based international organisation for public-private cooperation. It is a global, impartial and not-for-profit platform meant for meaningful connection between stakeholders to establish trust, and build initiatives for cooperation and progress which brings in political, business, academic, civil society and other leaders together. The organisation’s annual meeting is held at Davos every January.
Mr. Brende, the President of WEF is in India as part of the Raisina Dialogue 2024. Raisina Dialogue is India”s flagship conference on geopolitics and geo-economics, which is held annually in New Delhi. The conference is committed to addressing the most challenging matters confronting the international community.
