Piyush Goyal: The Congress era’s “Hindu rate of growth” was a legacy of low expectations
Piyush Goyal: On Saturday, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal blasted individuals who he said held the “perception” that India’s economic growth would be limited to 4-4.5 percent and that it could not or would not be able to expand faster.
He recounted the times when many referred to India’s sluggish economic development as the “Hindu rate of growth” while speaking at the World Hindu Economic Forum 2025.
Economist Raj Krishna first used the phrase “Hindu rate of growth” in the late 1970s to describe India’s typical yearly GDP growth of 3–4% in the decades after independence, especially from the 1950s to around 1980.
Piyush Goyal, who was criticizing previous administrations, the Congress, and the Congress-led UPA, said that a belief had grown that India will grow at a rate of 4-4.5 percent regardless of the government.
“India’s development potential of 4-4.5 percent was undervalued. People have started to think that we were not dominant on the global scene.Everything was meddled with by the government. He focused his fire on the then-Congress and the Congress-led UPA regimes, saying, “The government stood by its chosen friends and didn’t care about anyone else.”
The young men and women seated among us may not fully comprehend how the nation was governed throughout history, what some have referred to as “the Hindu rate of growth,” or how years of harassment of Indian culture went on. There were mostly Congress administrations from 1947 until 1991. He pointed out that during the brief time from 1977 and 1979, a coalition government with disparate ideologies and perspectives united to oppose the Emergency declared by the Congress, which had taken away all of our rights.
He went on to say that India is on course to become the third-largest economy in the world in the next two to three years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He said that this change won’t take 30 years, in contrast to former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s 2014 prediction.
“P Chidambaram said in 2014 that it would take India 30 years to get to the position of the third-largest economy. By 2044, he projected, India’s economy will rank third in the world. The Union Minister said, “We will become the third largest economy in the world in the next two or two and a half years under Prime Minister Modi’s decisive leadership and with the effort that 1.4 billion Indians are putting in today.”
We’ll likely have an economy of $25–30 trillion by 2044. Our goal for Viksit Bharat 2047 is to have an economy of at least $30 trillion. And we’re headed in the right direction to do it.”
The Union minister took a jab at the UPA administration from 2004 to 2014, saying that they made India’s inflation and economic conditions worse.
“We gave them 8% economic growth and 4% inflation. They changed it back to 4% growth and 8% inflation between 2004 and 2014,” he said.
He made reference to some of the alleged prior frauds when he said, “During the ten-year tenure, the level of corruption was at its peak,” “In the last 3-4 years (of the UPA 2), there was hardly any governance in place.”
Minister Goyal said that India is now signing trade agreements from a position of strength, self-assurance, and self-respect, in contrast to the last few years.
He made reference to several of the recent free trade agreements that India has signed when he said, “We don’t do FTAs with our competitors.” He went on to say that such nations also have greater per capita incomes, which suggests that India should better market its goods and services.
In general, Piyush Goyal told the Forum today that India’s rise is not just a tale of economic expansion but also of a shift in thinking and ideals. “India has become a dependable global partner with policy reforms, labor codes, digital innovations, and growing exports, which forms the foundation of its journey towards a developed India,” he said.