India Can Become The World’s Largest Economy, Says Facebook’s Sandberg

India has the potential to become the world’s largest economy, said Facebook’s chief operating officer (COO) Sheryl Sandberg. Sandberg, who served as the Chief of Staff for the US Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton, said the over $2 trillion Indian economy has potential to create jobs and drive growth.

"India has the potential to become the largest economy in the world. And if you look at economic growth, particularly recently, jobs are a very hard situation all over the world. From the US to developing markets, everyone is very concerned about jobs. And the majority of the growth, as I understand it, is certainly here, certainly in the US. In most countries, I have visited, SMBs are the way to growth," she said.
Emphasising on entrepreneurship, she said, "The answer to growth is entrepreneurship."

"Individuals are creating businesses and employing other people, and in India, the small and medium businesses (SMBs) growth is strong. And the Internet provides more growth stories to SMBs. People are connecting to people and getting more customers and that's what leads to economic growth," she added.

Micro, small and medium businesses contribute almost 8% of India's GDP, 45% of the manufacturing output and 40% of exports.
Recalling her association with India, she said she started her career in India in 1981, working with the World Bank on leprosy. "And now when I look at leprosy, it's no longer a threat here. The way I see it, India has grown so much in the past two decades," she added.

Sandberg said Facebook wanted to be a part of India’s growth story. "India is Facebook's second largest market, fastest growing market, fastest growing Internet connectivity in the Asia Pacific. It is of high priority for us," she said.

India has more than 100 million Facebook users, with around 84 million of them accessing the social networking site from their mobile phones.