New Delhi: India’s GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate has remained the highest among major economies in recent years and this extraordinary performance will continue in the year 2024 and beyond, President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day 2024.

“India is moving ahead with confidence, which comes from and is also reflected by the robust health of the economy. Our GDP growth rate has remained the highest among major economies in recent years, and we have all reasons to believe that this extraordinary performance will continue in the year 2024 and beyond,” she said on Thursday.

“What I find particularly noteworthy is that the same farsighted planning that fuels the economy has also given a push to the welfare drive to make the development inclusive in every sense of the term,” she further said.

Murmu said that the government had increased the scope of schemes to provide free food to the weaker sections of society during the pandemic days.

“These measures were later continued to extend a helping hand to the vulnerable population to come out of that crisis. Expanding the scope of that initiative, the government has decided to provide free food grains to over 81 crore people for five years. This may be the biggest welfare initiative of its kind in history,” the President said.

Driven by strong domestic demand and massive public spending, Indian economy has outpaced the growth of all major economies in the world. Beating market estimates, it logged 7.6% year-on-year growth in July-September quarter (Q2) of 2023-24.