Exciting days ahead, India will match Chinese growth rate: Arun Jaitley

Mumbai: Promising exciting days ahead, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said India would match Chinese growth rate once the unbanked population comes under structured financial system.

The minister also said that the real challenge today is to bring a further spurt in investment, concentrate on infrastructure and improve manufacturing in a big way.

"I think time has come to enter into the next phase where we give spurt to these goals which are essential for reviving Indian economy," he said.

"The days ahead are going to be extremely exciting...when even these sections (unbanked population) have RuPay cards, and lots of Indian spending goes into banking sector, probably days are not very far when we could probably match the Chinese growth," he said at an ICICI Bank function.

The minister said with more and more people using RuPay debit cards, a large part of the economic activity, which is out of the banking net, would get reflected in the GDP.

China has been the world's fastest growing economy in the recent times, recording double digit growth rate for almost two decades.

On the other hand, India touched a peak of 9.6 per cent in 2006-07 and has since tapered to below five per cent in last two years.

"We have reached a situation which does not excite anyone. I think this challenging and troubled times we are passing through are capable of becoming important turning point in Indian history," Mr Jaitley said.

Recounting the initiatives taken by the NDA government in past seven months, he said the Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana to bring unbanked population under the banking net has already achieved the target.

Over 10 crore bank accounts have already been under the scheme a month ahead of the schedule.

Besides, the government has begun the direct benefit transfer of subsidies to the accounts of beneficiaries, he added.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has prepared an unambiguous road map and would stick to it to achieve higher growth.

"We will pursue this roadmap consistently. We will endeavour that none of (the) steps we take ever give a contrarian signal," he said, adding that industry will have to play its role in nation building.

He further said that both public and private sector banks in India will be the catalysts for development.

Observing that in the past 60 years the country has many triumphs as well as missed opportunities, he said, "This one is the opportunity we cannot afford to miss and this is an opportunity which will make India take a historic turn."