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India could not achieve its full potential owing to "misgovernance", while BRIC countries progressed rapidly in the last decade, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday.
"In 2003, Goldman Sachs led by Jim had predicted that BRIC countries would overtake G7 nations by 2050. The world was taken aback. We, in India, were pleasantly surprised," Modi said.
The chief minister was speaking at an interactive session called 'Achieving India's Full Economic Potential' sharing dais with former Goldman Sachs Chief Jim O Niell, organised in Gandhinagar.
"In the following decade, BRIC countries, particularly China, behaved to a great extent as predicted. We were hoping that India too would grow at a similar rapid pace," he said.
"However, unfortunately, we have not been able to achieve our full potential. Not only that, the last decade was also stuck in uncertain and uneven growth. This is further compounded by policy paralysis and misgovernance," Modi said.
"We lost a historic opportunity in the process," he said.
"I have read Jim's 2008 paper '10 Things for India to Achieve its 2050 Potential' with keen interest. I am quite convinced about what he is saying," Modi said.
Noting that although many things Niell speaks about do not fall in the jurisdiction of the state government in India's federal structure, Modi said yet Gujarat's approach towards growth and development somewhat mirrors it.
"Transparency, openness and people's participation were also insisted upon right from the beginning. The overall idea was to move from government, to governance, as well as from rules and acts to responsible action," Modi said.
Image: Narendra Modi felicitating former Goldman Sachs Chief Jim O Niell during a function in Gandhinagar on Monday
Photograph Courtesy: Narendra Modi’s website