Bengaluru: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said India has the potential to achieve economic growth of more than 10 per cent, framing technology adoption, innovation and a more optimistic national mindset as essential ingredients for that ambition.
Speaking at a fireside chat organised by the IIT Madras Alumni Association in Bengaluru, Sitharaman said the country's growth trajectory could be pushed higher if new technologies spread more quickly across sectors, especially agriculture and startups. She said such a leap would not come easily, but insisted it was within reach.
"It is possible to reach 10 plus growth, and I'm not just saying it to pep you all up. It is possible," she said, underscoring her confidence in India's long-term economic prospects.
Her remarks come at a time when India is seeking to sustain its position as one of the world's fastest-growing major economies while also trying to deepen domestic manufacturing, raise productivity and create more jobs for a young population. Sitharaman linked the prospect of stronger growth directly to the government's broader economic goals of Atmanirbhar Bharat and Viksit Bharat, saying higher output would help accelerate both self-reliance and development.
But she cautioned that the path to such growth would require "a lot more effort" from all sides, including policymakers, industry, entrepreneurs and citizens. The finance minister repeatedly returned to the theme of mindset, saying India must resist pessimism and focus more on the progress already visible on the ground.
"We have too many naysayers. We have too many people who have vicarious pleasure being derived if India fails. We really cannot afford that. We need to nudge these people to think positive," she said.
A major part of her address focused on the role of technology in agriculture, where she said digital and mechanised interventions had already made a "spectacular difference" in connecting producers to markets and improving productivity. She pointed to the use of technology to speed up harvesting and prepare land for the next crop, as well as drones and aerial geospatial instruments that are now being used for precision mapping of land parcels that were earlier measured manually.
According to Sitharaman, the spread of such tools could transform farm economics by improving efficiency, reducing waste and helping farmers make better decisions. She also highlighted the use of point-of-sale machines in fertiliser distribution as an example of how technology can curb pilferage and improve targeting.
The POS system, she said, is still under pilot testing and records details of the farmer, land and crop being cultivated. It also provides farmers with information on the quantity of fertiliser that may be sufficient based on soil, irrigation and crop conditions. At the same time, she stressed that farmers would continue to retain the freedom to choose what they buy.
"The farmers will continue to have a choice in purchasing fertilisers, while the technology would inform them about the quantity that may be sufficient for their crop," she said.
Sitharaman also warned that excessive use of pesticides and fertilisers was contaminating soil and water, arguing that technology could help address those environmental and productivity challenges at the same time. The sooner such tools reach the farm sector, she said, the better it would be for India's growth prospects.
"So the sooner these technologies reach these sectors, the better it is for India. You will be optimally producing things and therefore adding to the growth," she added.
The finance minister also cited the rise of startups since 2015, saying the ecosystem could make a significant contribution to the economy in the coming years. Her comments reflected the government's broader bet that innovation-led entrepreneurship, digital platforms and sector-specific technology adoption will be central to India's next phase of expansion.
By tying together agriculture, startups and national growth ambitions, Sitharaman presented a vision of an economy that can scale faster if innovation reaches beyond urban tech hubs and into the country's core productive sectors. Her message in Bengaluru was ultimately one of possibility, but also of urgency: India, she suggested, has the tools to grow faster, but only if it moves quickly and refuses to be held back by doubt.