India is playing its cards well, says CEA amid Trump tariff disruption

As US President Donald Trump throws global trade into turmoil and levies a 26% import tariff on India, Venkatramanan Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, urged businesses and investors to avoid knee-jerk reactions to global uncertainties and instead focus on India’s inherent economic strengths.

In a fireside chat at the Startup Mahakumbh 2025, India’s premier startup conclave hosted at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, Nageswaran emphasised the importance of maintaining perspective amid evolving global conditions.

“So, first of all, I think in this kind of global scenario, we need to count our blessings. We have a fairly large domestic consumption-based economy, and our services exports have been growing at a faster pace," he stated. "Given that kind of background, I think what we put out in the Economic Survey was two things. One, we will be able to grow based on domestic economic strength at around six and a half percent for the next several years per annum in real terms.”

Nageswaran noted that while global markets remain volatile and geopolitical tensions persist, India is playing its cards well by leveraging its economic fundamentals.

“We have many of the building blocks in place for us to sustain a very decent real GDP growth rate and nominal GDP growth rate in the current circumstances. And that is something very, very important. We should not lose sight of these strengths in the middle of what the newspaper headlines keep screaming about uncertainties. Yes, they are there. That’s a given, but in relative terms, I think we are better placed,” he stated.

He further emphasised that the world was already dealing with imbalances across multiple fronts, including trade, economic growth, and financial structures.

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“We all knew that, in some form or the other, the status quo in the world had built up a lot of imbalances—domestic demand imbalances, the imbalance between countries that export and save too much and those that spend too much domestically, as well as the discourse between net zero and economic growth. There was also an imbalance between too much finance and too little real economy,” Nageswaran said.

He suggested that disruptions provide an opportunity to rethink traditional economic models and strategic relationships. “In some sense, you need these kinds of disruptions for us to rethink the entire playbook. And that is what is happening. I think, on balance, India is playing its cards well. We have our options, and we are strategically focusing on the relationship in full. In the broader sense, I think this should come out well,” he explained.

The Startup Mahakumbh 2025, being held from April 3 to 5, is one of India’s largest startup gatherings, bringing together over 3,000 startups, 1,000 investors, and delegations from 50+ countries.