India can grow at 8%: Ahluwalia

new delhi — India can achieve eight per cent growth provided difficult policy decisions are taken, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.

He called for greater attention to linking economic policy making with external and internal security.

Speaking on ‘Indian Economy and National Security’ at the 49th Foundation Day of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses here, Ahluwalia said poverty had declined much faster since the UPA government came to power.

“Eight per cent growth can only be achieved if large number of difficult policy decisions are taken. We should be girding up our loins to move at eight per cent,” Ahluwalia said. He said if there were policy logjams, Indian economy will grow at “five-5.5 per cent.”

Ahluwalia said eight per cent growth cannot be achieved “without much greater inflow of technology, trade and investment”.

“We actually need to encourage a lot of foreign investment. Technology is indistinguishable from investment flow,” he said. He said self-reliance should mean being “able to pay for anything we import”. Ahluwalia said the poor should have a stake in the system as no growth was viable if it did not benefit the poor.

“Since 2004 there has been much faster decline in poverty than in 1993-94,” he said and added the decline had been three times faster till 2011.