"The going has never been as good for India in the past as it is now as our economy has been growing at an impressive pace of over eight percent," Singh said in a national address during 59th Independence Day celebrations.

"Such rapid growth over three successive years is unprecedented in Indian history. Our industry and services sectors are showing impressive growth," the prime minister said from the Mughal-built Red Fort in the Indian capital.

"The growth of the manufacturing industry touched 11 percent in the last quarter, generating many jobs for our youth and workers," the economist-turned-premier added.

However, rising global fuel prices were of concern to his communist-backed Congress party government.

"Two years ago the international price of oil was just over 30 dollars per barrel and today it is close to 75 dollars," he said.

"Even though world oil prices have more than doubled, we have succeeded in insulating our consumers to a great extent... Prices of kerosene and liquid petroleum gas have not been raised," Singh said of the two products widely used as cooking fuel by Indians.

"But there is a limit to which we can go on subsidising the consumption of petroleum products in the face of rising import costs.

"How much more can the government treasury bear this burden? At some point, this will affect our ability to spend on other important development programmes," he warned.