new delhi indias gdp growth of 71 per cent achieved last fiscal is not as encouraging as it might seem despite the expansion rate being better than all developed countries according to bajaj auto chairman rahul bajaj impact of lack of significant investments in the last 45 years inability of private sector to put in fresh capital with availing of loans becoming an issue due to rising npas of banks along with demonetisation were mainly responsible for dampening growth he said i thought of starting with encouraging news about indias economic growth in 201617 but as i started looking at the latest evidence it didnt seem as encouraging as i believed it might be bajaj said in his address to shareholders in the companys annual report for 201617 he said in its latest advance estimate the central statistical organisation has pegged indias real gdp growth for last financial year at 71 per cent no doubt it is better than all developed countries and most emerging markets including china however it is not as good as the 79 per cent gdp growth achieved in fy2016 bajaj said while the country has grown the veteran industrialist said we possibly have a longer way to go to attain a steady state annual growth rate between 75 per cent and 8 per cent which is what we need to create a launchpad for greater employment a more significant global economic presence and accelerated poverty reduction also read i do not see any alternate to modi as pm says rahul bajaj elaborating on three factors that have played a role in dampening growth bajaj said there has been a lack of significant investments over the last four to five years of late there has been a serious effort at government investments in some key infrastructure areas but that takes time to translate into additional income and employment and truth be told there is hardly any private sector investment worth the name he said underlining the impact of rising bad loans and its impact on private sector investments he said the nonperforming assets npas of 27 public sector banks were estimated at rs 647759 crore or 88 per cent of the total recorded npas across all banks this represents a 140 per cent increase over what it was two years earlier and constitutes 12 per cent of total loans and advances he added with these banks being badly stressed there seems to be no appetite for advancing term loans without which it is virtually impossible to envisage the kind of investment spends needed for getting us securely on to a higher growth path bajaj said the third factor according to bajaj was the shorter term aberration and temporary negative effects of demonetisation of rs 500 and rs 1000 notes announced on november 8 last year although the estimates for octoberdecember 2016 show no appreciable dip in either real gdp or gva there seems to be enough evidence on the ground that removing over fourfifth of the