India's Growth Playbook: AI, FTAs, and Infra Unveiled at BT Summit

At the BT Banking & Economy Summit, top policymakers outlined India’s next growth pillars spanning artificial intelligence, trade integration, and financial resilience. A highlight is the ₹10,300 crore IndiaAI Mission to build sovereign AI capacity through indigenous large language models across 22 Indian languages, with smaller language models to widen access. On trade, India has concluded major free trade agreements with the UK, EU, US, Oman and New Zealand, signaling a paradigm shift toward negotiating from a position of strength. Remittances reached $135.4 billion, and stronger balance sheets were cited as indicators of structural transformation.

Looking ahead to the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, the banking sector is shown as a critical engine for sustained growth. Rajneesh Karnatak, MD and CEO of Bank of India, warned that despite robust momentum, India still hosts only a handful of banks in global rankings. He stressed the need for scale, greater asset size, and market capitalization, arguing for a multi-layered banking structure that includes NBFCs, mutual funds, insurance, and pension sectors to serve a diverse population from rural to urban areas. The aim is to ensure credit expansion keeps pace with GDP growth and to broaden the financial ecosystem beyond traditional banks.

On the fiscal front, the summit underscored prudence as a backbone for a massive infrastructure push. The deficit has fallen from 9.2% of GDP in FY22 to 4.4% in FY26, with a target of 4.3% in FY27. Central government debt is projected to decline toward 50% of GDP by 2031. Capital expenditure has risen fourfold since FY18, with ₹12.2 lakh crore budgeted for FY27. In manufacturing, India was highlighted as the world’s second-largest mobile phone manufacturer, underscoring the country’s push toward domestic production and export strength as part of the growth strategy.

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