Overtaking the United Kingdom, India has become the fifth largest economy in the world, according to data released by IMF last week. Now, only the United States, China, Japan and Germany have a bigger economy than that of us. Sounds amazing. India has adopted several major reforms during the Last few years and also overcome the deadly Covid-19 pandemic to reach this remarkable milestone.

Meanwhile, according to National Statistical Office (NSO) data, India's GDP growth increased to 13.5 percent in the first quarter of the current financial year, against 4.1 percent during the corresponding period last year. However, this growth is below RBI's forecast of 16.2 percent. Experts point out that high imports and weaker government consumption expenditure have affected growth, although private consumption is gradually improving.

Interestingly, the latest SBI Ecowrap report adds that the reforms that have been taken since 2014 would help India become the third largest economy in the world by 2029. "In coming days India is likely to be the beneficiary as China slows down in terms of new investment intentions," the report adds. This sounds encouraging, and there is not an iota of doubt that if the government continues to push reform measures, such a feat seems quite possible.

Complacency should, however, be avoided. Critics have pointed out that although India has passed the UK to become the world's fifth largest economy, the latter's per capita income is 20 times higher than that of India's. Our GDP is estimated at $3.5 trillion against a population of 140 crore while the size of the UK economy is $3.2 trillion against a population of only 6.8 crore. So, our GDP needs to rise at a much faster level.

I invite your opinions.