Industry Odisha Bureau, Aug 17: Mumbai-headquartered India’s leading investment banking and financial services firm Equirus in its policy report has reportedly stated that 14.2% annual rupee growth, 3-3.6% rupee appreciation, service-led expansion, and above all 20 coordinated reforms acoss five growth engines could pave the path for India to reach a $20 trillion economy by 2036.
Media reports on the growth challenge noted by the policy report of Equirus have stated that, “While India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is currently about $3.7 trillion, reaching $20 trillion by 2036 means a 5.5× expansion in just over a decade, requiring 18% nominal dollar growth annually, well above the historical 10–11% trend.”
Media reports have also stated that, “Equirus has identified five interlinked growth engines that must fire together. They are ‘Human Capital’, ‘Markets’, ‘Services’, ‘Governance’ and ‘Currency’.”
Elaborating on the five growth engines as Equirus has identified, media reports have added that, “While ‘Human Capital’ signifies expansion of education, skills and health to boost productivity, ‘Markets’ signify deepening capital markets, including corporate bonds and improving investment flows, ‘Services’ (that would be the main growth engine) signify raising share from 54% to 65% and expanding from $2 trillion to $11 trillion+, ‘Governance’ signifies strengthening of institutions, reducing frictions and improving policy predictability, and ‘Currency’ signifies achieving 14.2% rupee growth and 3-3.6% annual appreciation to boost dollar GDP.”
On the 20-step reform agenda highlighted by the Equirus in its policy report, media reports have further stated that, “Fuel ought to be brought under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), state capital expenditure floors should be enforced, Railways to be listed, corporate bond market should be deepened, bonds to be treated on par with equities, private sector R&D ought to be revived and skills training to be expanded, tax-related working capital frictions should be reduced while sovereign bond to be created, and above all, proper policies ought to be initiated and undertaken to support rupee growth and appreciation.”
As per media reports, “Equirus policy report has estimated that abolishing advance tax could release around Rs 10 trillion of working capital, while a flat 5% of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) could unlock another Rs 13.4 trillion.”
Media reports have also stated that, “The Equirus policy report has concluded that India achieving the $20 trillion milestone by 2036 will ultimately depend on execution across multiple fronts rather than any single policy lever.”
