‘Economic selfishness’: In a veiled dig at Trump, PM Modi says India’s 7.8% growth ‘not short-term signals’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hailed India’s GDP growth at 7.8 per cent as he took a veiled dig at Trump’s tariff measures, saying that the country achieved this feat “despite challenges created by economic selfishness.”

Trump’s punitive 50 per cent tariffs went into effect last week, taking India-US ties into murky waters as the president slammed New Delhi for buying Russian oil, which the administration claims is “funding the war” in Ukraine.

“Just a few days ago, the GDP numbers for the first quarter of this year have come. Once again, India has performed better than every expectation, every assessment. At a time when there are concerns in world’s economies, due to challenges created by economic selfishness; India has achieved a growth of 7.8 per cent,” PM Modi said during the Semicon India event.

#WATCH | At Semicon India 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, “Just a few days ago, the GDP numbers for the first quarter of this year have come. Once again, India has performed better than every expectation, every assessment. At a time when there are concerns in the economy… pic.twitter.com/MbDg4UkCOd

— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2025