The CEA, however, clarified that the economic dynamics and the animal spirit are “undeniable”.

The central government estimates that the country’s GDP growth for FY23 will fall between the Reserve Bank of India’s forecast of 7.2% and the International Monetary Fund‘s forecast of 7.4%, a- he declared.

Outlining the factors hurting growth, he said the world is still suffering the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing war in Europe sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Economic survey

The economic study released ahead of the January 2022 annual budget estimated FY23 growth to be between 8 and 8.5 percent. The central bank has estimated GDP to grow at 7.2%, but some analysts have said there will soon be a downward revision to the estimate.

Nageswaran said the country was also well positioned to sustain growth of 7% per year for the rest of the decade.

Speaking at the fintech event, Nageswaran said the Center is moving from financial inclusion to financial empowerment and the focus in the decade to 2030 is to help people access services financial services such as credit and insurance using the database of accounts opened earlier.

He said that in a bid to bring remittance fees down to near zero, the government is working to help establish interoperability between payment systems in Singapore and the UAE to help the diaspora.

He said the unified payment interface “mimics” the soon-to-be-introduced central bank digital currency, which India is making progress on.

Speaking on the credit front, he said, “We are moving from a collateral-based system to one where cash flow comes in essence.”

However, there is a need for cash flow-based lending applications not to abuse borrowers, especially those who do not have such high financial literacy, he said.

Nageswaran felt that the overall opportunity for cash flow based lending was ₹3 lakh crore next year.

He also said a data protection law was needed.

Companies should see profit as a way to innovate and not abuse the system, he said.

India also needs to move forward on intellectual property challenges, he said, noting that the country has now created a host of solutions after being just a consumer for many years.

There is a lot of interest within the G-20 group to understand India’s model of partnering with the private sector for better systems, he added.

Nageswaran previously said India was relatively better off than other emerging economies.

The World Bank has cut India’s economic growth forecast for the current fiscal year to 7.5% as rising inflation, supply chain disruptions and geopolitical tensions slow the recovery .

India’s economy grew by 8.7% in the last fiscal year (2021-22) compared to a contraction of 6.6% the previous year.

With the contributions of the agency

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