Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Poonam Gupta today said India has the potential to sustain economic growth of over 7.5% owing to “underlying strength” in the economy.

Gupta stressed on the strengths and resilience of the Indian economy.  “In the last few years, India has grown at around 7.5% with inflation below 4%, which shows the underlying strength of the economy. This gives me confidence that we have the potential to sustain even higher growth than 7.5% in a non-inflationary manner,” she said during at the second edition of the Annual Growth Conference 2026 organised by the Isaac Centre for Public Policy (ICPP) of the Ashoka University.

Amid the ongoing crisis and the Indian currency tanking to record lows against the Dollar, Gupta said India’s balance of payments is supported by three components. “I remain quite confident and optimistic that India’s balance of payments has inherent structural strengths driven by three key components: solid remittances of over $135 billion, strong net services exports, and steady FDI inflows,” Gupta said.  

“These are not cyclical but structural trends, which means that even if shocks occur and some years are more challenging, the underlying strength will sustain and the economy will return to its growth path,” she added.

One of the key messages that came out from the Ashoka University’s annual growth conference is that the government will not pare the capital expenditure for FY26, despite the fiscal strain likely to come up in the wake of the US-Iran conflict.

Speaking in a session, Vumlunmang Vualnam, secretary, department of expenditure, ministry of finance, stated that the upcoming few months, the next quarter and the year ahead, would be very difficult to envisage with lots of possible stress points.

“The fiscal stress is indeed very much a reality, but at the same time the CAPEX would really be a priority item which we would like to preserve and ensure that it continues at the budgeted level,” said Vualnam.

Prachi Mishra, Professor of Economics, Director and Head of the Isaac Centre for Public Policy, Ashoka University, said, “I definitely believe we can achieve 7–8% growth. There will be years of shocks that may bring lower growth, but if we build structural resilience and maintain strong macroeconomic stability, there will also be years where growth exceeds this range—helping us stay on track over the long term.”