Budget & Beyond: Biting the hard reforms bullet By Amitabh Kant In order to truly transform India, there is no way out but sustained growth. We have seen this transformation in the case of South Korea, Taiwan and more recently, China. South Korea grew at an average rate of 9.6% in the three decades between 1960 and 1990. China, between 1980 and 2010, grew at a rate of 10%. Whilst India has witnessed a substantial transformation since the 1990s, our average growth rate for the past 30 years has been 6.5%. Our service sector took off, and so did capital-intensive manufacturing. Yet, it became increasingly clear that the Indian economy marched ahead at two distinct speeds. The formal and organised sector marched ahead. The informal and unorganised sector played catch up.