A day ahead of presenting Union Budget 2015-16, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley tabled the Economic Survey in Parliament on Friday which indicates a clear political mandate for reform and a benign external environment now is expected to propel India on to a double digit trajectory. 

''Indian economy appears to have now gone past the economic slowdown, persistent inflation, elevated fiscal deficit, slackening domestic demand, external account imbalances and oscillating value of the rupee,'' the survey said.

''The Economic Survey states that growth at market prices for 2015-16 is expected to be 8.1-to 8.5%.'' 

The growth rate in GDP at constant (2011-12) market prices in 2012-13 was 5.1%, which increased to 6.9% in 2013-14 and it is expected to further increase to 7.4% in 2014-15.

The Economic Survey says that expectation for such a growth rate is also due to a number of reforms that have already been undertaken and more that are being planned for.  The Survey enlist various reform measures like de-regulation of diesel price, taxing energy products, replacing cooking gas subsidy by direct transfer on national scale, passing an Ordinance to reform the coal sector via auctions, increasing the FDI caps in defence, etc.

The Survey report also commended the far reaching changes brought about on the issue of sharing of revenues between the Centre and States as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission.

The Survey says that decline in inflation by over 6 percentage points since late 2013 and also reduction of current account deficit from a peak of 6.7% of GDP in the third quarter of 2012-13 to about 1% in the coming fiscal year has made India an attractive investment destination well above most other countries.

The expected high growth rate in the coming year in the favourable economic environment has created a historic movement of opportunity to propel India into a double-digit growth trajectory to attain the fundamental objective of wiping every tear from every eye of the vulnerable and poor people of the country, the survey says. 

It also gives an opportunity to the increasingly young, middle-class and aspirational India to realize its full potential. As the new Government is to present its first full year budget, the Economic Survey states that it appears that India has reached a sweet spot and that there is a scope for Big Bang reforms now.

The growth estimates of over 8% for the current year is on expectations that the monsoon will be favourable,  as it was forecast to be normal, compared to last year. However the growth rate in Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices in agriculture is projected to decline from 3.7% in 2013-14, an exceptionally good previous year from the point of view of rainfall, to 1.1% in 2014-15, the current year with not-so-favourable monsoon.  

The Economic Survey says that the growth in 2014-15 is largely driven by domestic demand. There is hardly any external support to growth in 2014-15, as the growth in exports is projected to be only 0.9% and the growth rate of imports, around (-) 0.5%. The deceleration in imports owe substantially to the sharp decline in international oil prices in the current year that compressed the oil import bill.

It also says that there has been a decline in the rate of gross domestic saving, from 33.9% of the GDP in 2011-12 to 31.8% in 2012-13 and further to 30.6% in 2013-14, caused majorly by the sharp decline in the rate of household physical savings.