New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said India’s economy had “outperformed every expectation, estimate and forecast” by clocking 7.8% GDP growth in the first quarter of FY 2025-26, despite global turbulence and what he called “challenges driven by economic self-interest” — a veiled swipe at former US President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Indian goods.
Speaking at the Semicon India Conference in Delhi, a day after returning from China and Japan, Modi underscored that the country’s robust performance stood in stark contrast to other economies struggling with geopolitical and trade headwinds.
“While economies around the world are facing concerns and challenges driven by economic self-interest, India has achieved a growth rate of 7.8 per cent,” Modi said in Hindi.
According to government data, GDP growth beat expectations of 6.5% and marked a 1.3 percentage point jump over the same quarter last year. This also represents the fastest expansion in five quarters, with the previous high being 8.4% in January-March 2024.
Modi said the momentum was broad-based, with manufacturing, services, agriculture and construction all showing visible enthusiasm. He declared that this trajectory was steering India closer to becoming the world’s third-largest economy, while countering Trump’s recent jibe describing India as a “dead economy.”
“The day is not far when the world will say: Designed in India, Made in India, Trusted by the World,” Modi asserted.
The sharp political undertone comes after Trump, who returned to power earlier this year, slapped 25% reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods, followed by an additional 25% penalty for New Delhi’s continued purchase of Russian oil.
In a recent post on Truth Social, Trump accused India of exploiting a “totally one-sided relationship” with the US, alleging that New Delhi sells massive amounts of goods to America while blocking US companies with “the highest tariffs of any country.”
“They have now offered to cut their tariffs to nothing, but it’s getting late. They should have done so years ago,” Trump wrote, adding that India’s reliance on Russian oil and defense imports undermined US interests.
India has hit back, calling Washington’s measures “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable.” The Ministry of External Affairs stressed that its energy imports were driven by the need to safeguard the energy security of 1.4 billion citizens, and said that several other countries were also buying Russian oil.
“It is extremely unfortunate that the US has chosen to impose additional tariffs on India for actions that are clearly in our national interest,” the MEA said, vowing to take “all necessary steps to protect India’s economic sovereignty.”
The tariff standoff comes at a time when India is accelerating its push to become a global manufacturing hub. Economists say the latest GDP data strengthens New Delhi’s narrative that India is emerging as a reliable growth engine in a slowing world economy.
But with Trump tightening trade screws and pressing India to distance itself from Moscow, the clash between political compulsions and economic imperatives could shape the next phase of Indo-US relations.
