India has made significant strides in economic development since independence, successfully making a mark on the global economic arena. The economy’s unprecedented growth, especially in the second half of the past decade, along with strong economic fundamentals, enthuse optimism among economists and businesses the world over about its growth prospects. While a host of factors supported the emergence of the high growth era for the Indian economy, focus on economic reforms and resurgence of entrepreneurship have been major growth enablers. Liberalisation, growing economies of scale of Indian enterprises, increased access to advanced technologies and growth in entrepreneurship have led to the economy emerging as a much sought-after destination for foreign investments. The private sector also played a crucial role in India’s progress on the high growth trajectory during the past decade. We believe that private businesses would continue to scale new heights during the current decade. We expect participation of the private sector in the infrastructure development, which has been one of the major inhibiting factors for India’s growth prospects, to increase substantially during the current decade. As the economy progresses ahead in the current decade, the private sector would encounter a dynamic environment encompassing new challenges and opportunities. Therefore, it, becomes imperative for businesses to track the Indian economy’s growth prospects and dynamics of the evolving macroeconomic environment to explore opportunities and overcome challenges.

The economy is now on the fulcrum of high growth, after grappling with the global economic crisis during the end of the past decade. The current decade is expected to play a crucial role in charting out India’s progress towards becoming a developed nation. Until date, the development of the economy has been skewed and it lacked inclusive growth. However, we believe that India’s success story is set to enter a new era of inclusive growth. During the current decade, significant progress would be visible in terms of growth percolating to a larger section of the society, an aspiration that has remained unaccomplished. Even the government at the center and the state levels are expected to make more concentrated efforts to channelise resources for growth in an inclusive manner. D&B’s “India 2020 Economy Outlook” is an endeavour to evaluate and analyse the prospects of the economy during the current decade. This report is an attempt to provide forecasts of key macroeconomic variables, growth prospects of some of the Indian states, identify certain parameters that will drive growth during this period and also attempts to chart out some of the major policy initiatives that would facilitate India’s economic journey.

Kaushal Sampat
President & CEO - India
Dun & Bradstreet