The President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee has said that achieving 8 percent growth of India's GDP is not a distant dream. Addressing the 185th anniversary of the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce this evening Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said that our aim is to get rid of poverty, hunger, ignorance and disease. He said that the sluggish growth in exports in the last few years had become a big challenge, yet India has achieved a sustained growth rate. <br/><br/>In recent times, the President said, our exports have increased and these positive trends have helped India to face economic crisis that have fallen upon many country of the world. Pointing out that India has a foreign exchange reserve of over 3 hundred and 50 billion dollars, he said the recent fall in the price of crude oil in the international market has also helped. <br/><br/>Mr. Mukherjee said that, many countries of the world are now coming to India, which has become an important investment destination. The President said that India has now become self sufficient in food production and is also the second largest producer of rice and wheat, which helps us to feed the vast majority of our population which is continuously increasing. <br/><br/>Praising the current economic and manufacturing policy, the President said that with the advent of new technology, we will be able to become a fully developed country in the not too distant a future. He said with the second green revolution already had in set foot, a dream of a hunger-less, poverty-less and illiteracy-less India is not a distant dream.