New Delhi: The Indian economy is expected to grow around 10 percent during the current financial year on the likelihood of fewer COVID-19-linked supply disruptions and buoyancy in the global economy, said Poonam Gupta, Director General of economic think tank NCAER.

The real challenge, however, would be to sustain a growth rate of 7-8 percent in years to come, she said.

Annual growth in the ballpark range of about 10 percent was observed. The reasons for this perceived optimism are: fewer supply disruptions; increased pent-up demand in the traditional and contact-intensive services; and a buoyant global economy.

"Even so, if two pandemic years are taken together, there would be a very small net growth. In other words, the economy at the end of 2021-22 would be only slightly larger than at the end of 2019-20," Gupta, Director General of NCAER said.

On the challenges being faced by the Indian economy, she said the first one is to recover from the impact of COV ID-19 and the second is to sustain post-COVID-19 growth rates of at least 7-8 percent.

India has done rather well during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily because of the rapid pace of vaccination, Gupta said, adding, "Currently, ensuring rapid and widespread vaccination is the best growth policy that any country can implement. India's economic growth surged to 20.1 percent in the April-June quarter of this fiscal, helped by a low base in the year-ago period, amid a devastating second wave of the COVID-19.

The gross domestic product (GDP) had contracted by 24.4 percent in the corresponding April-June quarter of 2020-21.