India's GDP recently crossed the trillion-dollar mark for the first
time and with this India has joined the elite club of 12 countries with
a trillion dollar economy. Countries that have breached trillion-dollar
GDP level in the past are he US, Japan, Germany, China, UK, France,
Italy, Spain, Canada, Brazil and Russia.
The GDP or Gross Domestic Product is the primary indicator used to
gauge the health of a country's economy. The GDP of a country is defined
as the market value of all final goods and services produced within a
country in a given period of time. It is also considered the sum of
value added at every stage of production of all final goods and services
produced within a country in a given period of time. GDP is a number
that expresses the worth of the output of a country in local currency.
GDP tries to capture all final goods and services that are produced
within the political and geographical frontiers of the country, thereby
assuring that the final monetary value of everything that is created in
a country is represented in the GDP. GDP is calculated for a specific
period of time, usually a year or a quarter of a year.
According to the data released for the year 2006-2007, India's GDP grew
at an impressive 9.2 per cent. The share of different sectors of the
economy in India's GDP is as follows: Agriculture - 18.5 per cent,
Industry - 26.4 per cent, and Services - 55.1 per cent. The fact that
the service sector now accounts for more than half the GDP is a
milestone in India's economic history and takes it closer to the
fundamentals of a developed economy. At the time of independence
agriculture occupied the major share of GDP while the contribution of
services was relatively very less.
The government has set a target of an average annual GDP growth of 9
per cent for the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The target looks achievable as
all the macroeconomic fundamentals are strong and the impressive growth
rate of Indian GDP looks all set to continue.
Note: The above information was last updated on 21-07-2007
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