Can India grow as fast as China did?

This report is from this week’s CNBC’s “Inside India” newsletter which brings you timely, insightful news and market commentary on the emerging powerhouse and the big businesses behind its meteoric rise. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

The big banks of Wall Street have been quick to tweak what they expect from Indian growth this year.

Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank have all entertained the idea that India’s economic expansion might be lower than what was previously expected. The country’s GDP figure slowed to a 15-month low of 6.7% year-on-year in the second calendar quarter.

Yet, India’s central bank appeared to dismiss the negativity earlier this month and reiterated its bullish view of India’s growth rate, still expecting the economy to grow by 7.2%.

When asked by CNBC’s Tanvir Gill whether there were any downside risks to this prediction, the governor of the Reserve Bank of India responded with an emphatic “no.” “Not at all.”

“We are quite confident about the 7.2% growth which we have projected in our current year’s assessment,” Shaktikanta Das said in an exclusive interview for CNBC.

“The underlying momentum is very strong and is not driven by some seasonal factors or one off factors. The growth momentum in India is very strong and it is primarily attributable to structural factors.”

Das pointed to data showing that consumer spending, which makes up about 60% of GDP, rose to 7.4% in the second calendar quarter, compared to 4% in the previous quarter. Similarly, construction continued to expand at 10.5% for the same period. The agriculture sector, which grew by 2.2%, was held back by a delayed monsoon but has since recovered.

The “only component” that slowed down, according to the governor, was government expenditure amid the election season. “Going forward, I would expect the budgeted amounts will be spent by the central and the state governments, and then they will be able to catch up,” he added.

Not only did Das stick to his guns on India’s near-term growth prospect, he was also bullish about the medium-term trajectory, expecting GDP to expand by more than 7.5% annually.

“It can be between 7.5% to 8%, I’d like to say,” Das added. “But on a conservative basis: seven and a half.”

However, when prompted on whether India’s growth rate could compete with what China has already achieved for over two decades, the governor was less buoyant.

The growth rate is politically important for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he’s set out his vision to make India a developed economy by 2047 – a mere 23 years away and when India will log a whole century as an independent nation.

Meanwhile, China, now an upper-middle-income country, has grown by more than 10% annually for more than 22 years since the 1960s, according to CNBC’s count of World Bank data. India has never managed to achieve that feat.

“I think a 7.5% to 8% growth will not pose sustainability concerns. I think it can be sustainable. But if you are looking at…