...India needs to work much harder for sustained growth Global investment bank Goldman Sachs has suggested that the Indian economy has the potential to grow 40 times bigger by 2050. But there is a caveat. It has to work much harder to achieve its potential. India has been able to maintain a growth of 9 per cent in the last couple of years. But some argue that it may be linked to overall growth in the global economy rather than to the strength of India's macroeconomic fundamentals. The Goldman Sachs report says that there is much that needs to be done to build up India's potential. A list of 10 things that India must do: improve governance, raise educational achievement, increase quality and number of universities, control inflation, introduce a credible fiscal policy, liberalise financial markets, increase trade with neighbours, increase agricultural productivity, improve infrastructure and environmental quality. There is nothing in the report that we haven't already heard of. A report on growth by the World Bank, which was also released recently, spoke along similar lines. They serve as a constant reminder that India has the potential to become a leading economy provided it is serious about implementing some of these suggestions. That seriousness of purpose may be seriously lacking. The Goldman Sachs report stresses the need to control inflation. In the wake of inflation hitting a 13-year high of 11.05 per cent, the report suggests that