India to keep growing 6-8% in real terms in next 5 years: Vaishnaw

India will keep growing by 6-8 per cent in real terms and 10-13 per cent in nominal terms over the next five years, supported by moderate inflation and strong growth, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday. Speakin in a session on 'Bet on India - Bank on the Future' organised by CII in association with EY on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Vaishnaw highlighted the importance of simplification of permissions and affirmed that the average time for installation of telecom tower has decreased from 270 days to 7 days, with 89 per cent permissions coming in zero time. He underlined a need to bridge the gap between the intent and the functioning, and said that as political leaders, there is a need to make sure that the bureaucracy aligns with political power. He further highlighted the importance of communicating challenges amongst the industry members, mentioning the standardisation of data localisation norms across the US and Europe.
Calling the ongoing AI-led transformation the “fifth industrial revolution,” Vaishnaw said India’s approach to artificial intelligence is rooted in economics, scale and return on investment rather than a race to build the largest foundational models.Vaishnaw said AI must be viewed as a multi-layered architecture comprising five distinct layers – the application layer, model layer, chip layer, infrastructure layer and energy layer. India, he said, is making “very good progress” across all five.

Watch: Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw says, "...Actually, clearly in the first group, and the reason for that is there are five layers in the AI architecture: the application layer, the model layer, the chip layer, the infra layer, and the energy layer. We are working on all… pic.twitter.com/HFDNW1kiae

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Vaishnaw says, "People understand the reforms express which our Prime Minister Modi has flagged off. People really appreciate the reforms in GST, the opening up of nuclear sector. So many reforms which are happening, practically, in every sector - people recognise that. The investment momentum is very strong. There is a suggestion that, now time has come when we should be having a World Economic Forum in India. So, that idea has also come - kind of Autumn Davos in India. This is a new idea which has come, which basically shows the recognition of our country, of our economy. People see India as the fastest growing major economy, with inflation under control and very healthy balance sheet of the government, very low debt in the economy."