'India on right path to becoming 3rd largest economy by 2030': Rajnath Singh

Tashkent: India is on the right path to becoming the third-largest economy in the world by 2030, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Saturday, as New Delhi is focusing on fulfilling the basic necessities of the masses.

Addressing the Indian diaspora here, Singh said: "I want to assure you all that India is heading forward at a quick pace. We are a USD 2.7 trillion economy today, the double of what we were four and a half years back. By 2025-26, the size of our economy will be USD 5 trillion."

"Our efforts are to make India the third-largest economy by 2030, and we are moving in the right direction to achieve this. Our Prime Minister is very visionary. He feels that the government should focus on fulfilling the basic needs of our people. Only then they would have the confidence to become better contributors to the society," said Singh.

The Defence Minister said that the Indian government and the Prime Minister have strong will power to make the nation better.

"They say it takes more than mere rhetorics to do something. I want to assure you that the government and the Prime Minister have a strong will power to make the nation better," he said.

Defence Minister Singh is in Uzbekistan to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.

In his address at the SCO meeting today, Singh stressed upon the need for the implementation of existing international laws and mechanisms without "double standards" to combat terrorism.

India is actively engaged in various SCO cooperation activities and dialogue mechanisms in the region as well as to further develop multilateral cooperation within the SCO framework.