Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Saturday said that India will have the distinction of having the third largest GDP in the world within the next 20 years, if the economy continues to grow at the current rate of nine per cent.

Delivering the valedictory address at the second annual Max Planck International conference on ‘Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Economic Growth’ at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Mr Ahluwalia said, “We would be in third place after China and the US. But, more emphasis has to be accorded to research and development as we should also be a nation with emphasis on research and development. In order to spur innovation, we need a competitive environment,” he noted.

Dr Ahluwalia said that in the earlier system of a planned economy, it was difficult for new ideas to penetrate the planning process. There was a bias against new ideas.

“In the post-liberalised scenario, the system allowed venture capital to flow in. Economists have always said that competition brings in technology. The new regime has seen incomes double every nine years as opposed to every 40 years, some three decades ago,” Dr Ahluwalia pointed out.