8 Jan :Dr. Ashwini Kumar, Minister of State for Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, said that despite the turbulences in the global economy, our country remains a good story to tell “It is a song that every Indian must sing”. He was addressing the trade delegates at Pravasi Bharatiya divas in Chennai today. He said India is a one trillion dollar economy and will still grow by more than 6.5% this year. He said that India has potential to prove the projections that say that India will be the 5th largest economy by 2020 AD. He said that India has now 20% world population under the age of 24 year and by 2020, 295 million people will be added to the middle class. He described India “a land of over a billion people, 22 language, 840 dialects, innumerable religions, but still living harmoniously. This shows the ethos and values of Indians.
He said that overseas Indians are permanent India’s ambassadors. They must facilitate free flow of trade and investments to India. He added that remittances for Indian diaspora are 27 billion dollars but said that only a small portion of the remittance goes to productive assets. He added that Indians should make use of this platform to the fullest extent.