Officially it started with Morgan Stanley arguing that this was ‘India’s Decade’. Around the same time, data published by PRICE (People’s Research on the Indian Consumer Economy) report, projected that India’s middle class would nearly double to 715 million by 2030-31 and then grow to a staggering 1 billion by 2047. And, coincidentally, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published its findings that India had lifted 430 million people out of poverty in the 15 years ended 2021. Further, a geopolitical reset meant that the world’s economic affair with China was coming to a close. Pulling all these various strands together some of us went ahead and even called it India’s Techade—building on the unique digital public infrastructure model India has adopted to deliver public goods at scale. But the big question was what has changed, for India to catapult from the ‘fragile five’ to the lighthouse of the world economy? More importantly, would India, once again, impress to only disappoint?
To answer all these questions and more we spoke to Shamika Ravi, economist and member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.
