Comments made by CEO BVR Subrahmanyam of the Indian government think tank NITI Aayog about the size of the Indian economy have made headlines in the country's media. On Saturday, the head of the organization said that India was the world's fourth largest economy "as I speak". Subrahmanyam cited IMF data to back up the claim. In fact, India is projected to overtake Japan and move up into rank four of the world's largest economies this year.
The prognosis is, however, just a prognosis and the sizes of global economies in retrospect, i.e. after the current year is over, could turn out otherwise. It is highly plausible though that the projection holds true given the quick growth of the Indian economy over the years. IMF data shows that as recently as 2013, India was only the 10th largest economy. In 1997, India was only the 16th largest economy in the world in nominal, current terms. The country has overtaken many notable economies in size over the years.
