Between 1990 and 2011, India’s economy grew at a compound rate of around 7% per year in current dollar terms and the per capita income increased almost four times from $860 to $3,620. India is currently the third largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity (PPP) after the United States and China.  Focus is now on improving the developmental consequences of this surging economic growth for India’s 1.2 billion people. Indicators of social well-being indeed improved during the period of India’s rapid economic growth. With 15-20 million more youth entering the workforce each year, the need of the hour is to ensure the creation of new employment opportunities. The way forward is based on partnerships between the government, industry, civil society and, most importantly, the people of this country.
With about six months left before the current parliamentary term ends, political attention in India is focused on the national election campaigns, as well as various state-level contests preceding the legislative poll. 
Some Indian diaspora in Singapore have recently voiced concerns about India’s ability to rebound from a sharp economic slowdown. India's economy is languishing with the slowest growth in a decade, with high inflation and soaring fiscal and current account deficits — all at a time when there is a global slowdown. GDP growth has been at around 5% annually, which is massively below the government's official target rate.
Authorities have conceded that the economy is performing far below its potential, but somehow are confident that the growth will pick up. According to the Finance Minister, “If the fiscal deficit is contained, if the current account deficit is moderated and financed, and if inflation is moderated, you will find growth quickly climbing back to seven to eight per cent." However, a lot of work still needs to be done. “Economies don't work unless people have confidence about the future. And at this point I think they'll have to work very hard to get that back."
There's a one trillion dollar gap needed for infrastructure and only half of that can be paid for by the public sector, so one of the big challenges will be to mobilize private finance to support the infrastructure of India. India possesses the fundamentals to bounce back to a higher growth path, but apprehends a prolonged period of political paralysis going into an election year.
India's economy might not inspire confidence among its own people but the country remains a top investment draw for many countries.
The current government has undertaken a series of reforms since late 2012 to revive the slowing economy that would enable the growth rate to be at least 1% higher in the upcoming fiscal than in the current fiscal. The economic growth rate slipped to a decade low of 5% in 2012-13 and during the first quarter of current fiscal it stood at 4.4%. Currency problems have momentarily interrupted the process of revival of growth. India's growth has been hurt by a range of factors in recent months. including a slowdown in key sectors such as mining and manufacturing as a result of which real GDP growth slowed sharply in the first quarter of fiscal year 2013/14 (April-March). 
This slowdown coupled with a recovery in developed markets such as the US has made India a less attractive investment option and prompted investors to look for other options. Prospects of the US withdrawing a key stimulus program sooner than expected and a possible rise in interest rates in the US have also played a role in the pull-out. This has hurt India's currency, which has dipped as much as 20% against the US dollar since May this year. The US Fed is now pondering how to temper tapering without a rate hike. 

Green Shoots?
India's economic recovery is likely to be sluggish in 2013/14, with growth forecast at 4.5-5%. Consumer price inflation, which averaged an estimated 9.6% in 2013, is likely to moderate in 2014 onwards. As progress on easing supply-side constraints will remain slow, inflation will be a big negative, at an average of 7.3% p.a. The rupee is likely to weaken further in 2014, to about Rs 61.1:$1 on an average, from an estimated Rs 58.7:$1 in 2013. But around 2015 onwards is likely to strengthen, with the shrinking current-account deficit as a proportion of GDP and rising foreign investment.
Already green shoots have started emerging due to the favourable impact of the government measures on investment sentiment. This has started some revival in investment sentiment in the private sector in general. The full impact of this will be felt only in the next fiscal. It takes time for investment decisions to materialize into specific projects. Further, there is focused attention on achieving the production and capacity creation targets in some of the key public infrastructure sectors like coal, power, roads and railways. But these green shoots in the Indian economy are visible only in patches and can become more only with revival of investment cycle, which is key to economic recovery. The likelihood of government cutting its expenditure to rein in fiscal deficit is a worrying development, which can lead to further squeezing of business opportunities. The government is among the largest purchaser of goods and services.
Around two dozen industry segments have reported a negative trend in production in the first half of the current fiscal. Unless a reversal is seen in demand, it is difficult to revive sustainably the investment cycle. Unless we see clear signs of revival in the capital goods sector, the investment in manufacturing cannot begin. The capital goods sector reflects the state of investment in the key manufacturing industries, and it continues to suffer. The continuation of slowdown over de-growth is a great cause of concern. This negative trend depicts that there is huge surplus capacity lying in the sector.
     Return to high growth along with the feel-good factor is very important at this point of time. This only can enable consumer confidence which, in turn, would prompt fresh investment and resuming of stalled projects. 
Challenges Ahead
 A major change in the Indian economy in the recent past has been the rapid rise in the savings rate and the investment rate. In 2007-08, India had a growth rate of 9.4%, India’s domestic savings rate had touched 36% of GDP and the investment rate had touched 38% of GDP. It is this high level of savings rate and investment rate, which will be responsible for pushing the economy on a higher sustainable growth path. However, keeping the fiscal deficit at 4.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) and lowering inflationary apprehensions would be major challenges notwithstanding strong potential in Indian economy in the medium term. 
Industry has appreciated that business and industry are recognized as the key instruments for growth and progress of the country. Railway lines, DMIC, and National Investment and Manufacturing Zones are the key initiatives mentioned by Mr Rahul Gandhi as providing new opportunities for the youth. Manufacturing needs a special toolbox of policy sets that can lift investor sentiments and catalyze projects.
The pro-reforms approach adopted by Dr Raghuram Rajan in his maiden speech has sent a strong signal that the RBI would take significant steps to re-invigorate growth in the economy. The lack of expansion in the core sector leads to bottlenecks in the entire economy. It is important for these industries to show signs of recovery for the overall economy to turn around and grow at a quicker rate.
As part of the government’s 'Look-East Policy' and its economic integration with the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries, India is now taking the focused initiative of promoting the India-ASEAN connectivity.
The potential of partnership between India and select countries remains unfulfilled. For example, about Indo-US Partnership, Senator John Cornyn says: "I'm reminded of the tremendous potential of the US-India partnership. Unfortunately, that potential remains unfulfilled. Unfortunately, the US-India partnership has lost some of its momentum - partly because of economic factors, and partly because both countries have neglected obvious opportunities to deepen bilateral cooperation".

The author is a corporate economics and sustainability analyst. Views expressed are personal