NITI Aayog chief says there is policy paralysis in the country

"We might get full eight per cent because I also expect the first quarter growth rate which has been at seven per cent for 2015-16 will be revised upwards," he said. "We will continue to make progress. When we come to the last year of the present term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I would expect it would be near the double digit," he said.

Panagariya, who is in Beijing for talks with China's key think-tank the Development Research Centre on the status of the Sino-Indian economies, strongly denied criticism that the policy paralysis is creeping into the Modi government in view of government's inability to push through important legislations like GST Bill and Land Acquisition bills.

"I do not buy that. If you actually look at what the government has done, it is not the UPA government in operation. If the UPA government policies were continued we would have remained at five per cent or below. We have come out of it," he said.

"The policy paralysis has been eliminated completely from the government. Three is a well functioning government at the centre," Panagariya said. "The Prime Minster himself single handedly has made huge effort due to which we have moved up 12 places in the (World Banks's ease of doing business) rankings.

This does not take a lot of changes into account because the changes have been made after the World Bank has completed its survey," he said. "So you will see a much greater jump in the next round," he added.