India’s reform momentum is firmly on track: Ashwini Vaishnaw

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday (January 22, 2026) said India’s reform momentum is firmly on track, driven by deep structural reforms personally steered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which have transformed the Indian economy into a high-growth, resilient, and globally trusted destination.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting at Davos, Mr. Vaishnaw said landmark reforms undertaken in the past few years, including labour code reforms, simplification of the Goods and Services Tax, transformations in the energy sector, and the opening up of nuclear energy to the private sector, were generating strong investor confidence across sectors.

He said a continuous reform process was under way across all sectors of the economy, adding that investors were enthused by the policy environment in India and were increasingly expanding their commitments. He cited several instances, including IKEA announcing plans to double its investment and Qualcomm significantly expanding its workforce in India. Companies across sectors were increasingly viewing the current period as an opportune time to invest in India, Mr. Vaishnaw said.

Highlighting India’s macroeconomic fundamentals, he said India was today the fastest-growing major economy in the world, with a consistent growth trajectory of 6-8% projected over the next five years. The combination of moderate inflation and high growth reflected the economic transformation achieved under Mr. Modi’s leadership over the past decade, he said.

Referring to prevailing global uncertainties, the Minister emphasised the need to strengthen internal capabilities to enhance resilience amid geopolitical, geoeconomic, and geotechnical turbulence. He said the government was focused on ensuring that all foundational building blocks of the economy were firmly in place to enable India to weather global disruptions.

Mr. Vaishnaw said India was systematically building its own semiconductor ecosystem, developing a comprehensive artificial intelligence stack, rapidly scaling up defence production, and enabling Indian IT firms to transition from traditional software services to AI-driven solutions. These efforts collectively contributed to strengthening India’s economic resilience.

Noting that global perception of India at Davos had been overwhelmingly positive, with the country being widely regarded as a trusted nation demonstrating consistent economic growth, he said deliberations across panels reflected a broad consensus that India’s emergence as the world’s third-largest economy was now a matter of timing rather than possibility.

He underscored India’s inclusive growth model and said that initiatives such as the opening of over 54 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts and the provision of food security to more than 80 crore beneficiaries on a sustained basis ensured that economic growth reached the last mile. The scale and impact of this inclusive growth model were being widely recognised and appreciated globally, the Union Minister added.