GST registrations have grown from about 6.65 million in 2017 to 16.5 million in May 2026, Vice-President C. P. Radhakrishnan said on Saturday.

He was delivering the inaugural address at the fifth Kautilya Economic Conclave in New Delhi, organised by the Institute of Economic Growth around the theme ‘Resilience in an Age of Flux’. IEG trustees’ president N. K. Singh and board of governors chairman Michael Debabrata Patra attended.

Radhakrishnan said economic resilience would depend on whether growth reaches every citizen and region. He pointed to the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile architecture, noting more than 590 million Jan Dhan accounts had been opened by August 2026.

He said more than 250 million Indians had moved out of extreme poverty over the past decade, and highlighted around 9.2 million self-help groups covering more than 100 million rural women, along with over 34.6 million Lakhpati Didis.

The Vice-President said inclusion must go beyond formalisation and enable people to create value, generate income and become entrepreneurs.