CEA calls for industry-linked education push to power $ 30 trillion goal

CHENNAI: Setting the tone for India's next phase of growth at the 67th Institute Day of Indian Institute of Technology Madras on Thursday, V Anantha Nageswaran, the Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, said, "Our academia and education should concentrate on areas in which AI cannot replace humans. IITs must work closely with industrial institutions and polytechnics because they become the feeder for advanced manufacturing and engineering that the country needs."

Positioning technology, talent and scale at the centre of India's economic ambitions, the Chief Economic Advisor said the country's GDP, currently at US $3.91 trillion, could rise to US $7.8 trillion by 2030, with a long-term target of US $30 trillion by 2047. Achieving this would require sustained growth of about 12 per cent in dollar terms and a clear-eyed response to emerging global constraints.

"The world is not going to give us technological prowess. We have to develop it indigenously," he said.

Nageswaran emphasised that India's universities and research institutions must operate at the frontier of science and engineering, while also building the ability to acquire and adapt external technologies for domestic conditions. With India's population expected to expand to nearly 1.6 billion in the coming decades, he said, solutions must be designed for scale.

"We cannot remain in sandbox experiments. We must move from pilots and patents to economy-wide productivity gains in agriculture, manufacturing, services and governance," he noted.

He flagged structural gaps, particularly low research and development spending and weak industry-academia linkages. India's R&D expenditure remains well below one per cent of GDP, lagging global peers. "Patents and papers remain within institutions. The translation and commercialisation pipeline is thin," he said, pointing to a persistent investment bias towards asset-light sectors over deep-tech manufacturing.

On the global landscape, Anantha Nageswaran highlighted the rise of technology nationalism, supply-chain realignments and export controls, arguing that access to critical technologies is no longer market-driven. India's merchandise trade deficit of USD 333 billion in FY26, he said, reflects underlying vulnerabilities. "Dependence on a single supplier, even if friendly, is a strategic risk," he cautioned.

Addressing the implications of artificial intelligence, he described it as both an opportunity and a disruption. With India needing to generate around eight million jobs annually, AI must be leveraged to complement labour rather than displace it. "The challenge is to create AI-enabled and AI-insulated jobs at scale," he said.

He identified semiconductors, clean energy, defence technology, precision agriculture, digital public infrastructure and advanced manufacturing as key sectors that will shape India's growth trajectory.

The event, attended by faculty, students and alumni, also saw select recognitions being conferred, even as the broader focus remained on aligning institutions with national economic priorities.