India may need up to 30 years to catch up with US and China: former RBI governor
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Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan said that India could take between 15 and 30 years to catch up with the United States and China.
He spoke at the UBS Centre for Economics in Society at the University of Zurich on December 4.
Rajan said that many Indians are hopeful about the country’s growth path. He noted that people expect the current 6 percent growth rate to rise to 8 percent if conditions improve. He said that even with higher growth, India will take decades to reach the size of the US and Chinese economies.
He said that India is still quite small compared to the two powers.
He also spoke about Germany’s commitment of more than Rs 13000 crore to India’s green economy. This investment was mentioned at the same event.
Rajan discussed the 50 percent tariff that US President Donald Trump imposed on India. He said that the tariff had nothing to do with India buying Russian oil. He linked the move to the India-Pakistan tensions in May 2025 after the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the attack. The operation targeted terrorist sites in Pakistan. A ceasefire followed after a few days. Trump later claimed that he had brokered the peace. India rejected this claim.
Rajan said that Pakistan handled the situation in a way that pleased Trump, while India did not. He said that Pakistan first denied Trump’s role, but later its Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif credited him. He said that this resulted in Pakistan receiving a 19 percent tariff and India receiving a 50 percent tariff.
