World’s fastest growing economy

Ease of travel has always been among the major challenges this country faces, with authorities unable to provide infrastructure to keep up with the growing population. REPRESENTATION PIC/Istock

I haven't been able to deal with the scale of India's growth. No other country on the planet appears to come close anymore, if our unbiased news channels are to be believed. This appears to happen every year now, when facts and figures released by the government prove what our leaders have been saying for a while: India is growing at an unprecedented scale and it's starting to make all other countries look bad. Take last month's statistics, for instance, when we all found out that the economy had grown 7.8% in the June quarter, compared to expectations of 7.1%.

My illiteracy when it comes to economics prevents me from understanding what this means for the common man, but it doesn't take much intelligence to see that 7.8% is bigger than 7.1%, which is always a good thing. I also found out that this growth was driven mainly by strong performance in certain sectors like real estate, information technology, finance, and professional services. Nothing that occurred in the rest of the world - be it war, genocide, El Niño, or poor economic decisions by incompetent politicians, among other terrible things - had an adverse impact on our homegrown growth story, which only reiterated the overwhelming feeling of gratitude that engulfs me whenever I think about how lucky it is to be Indian.

I also stumbled upon criticism from some quarters, along with a few veiled comments about how those figures had been arrived at, but I didn't pay heed to them because I assumed they were from people who don't have any money invested in the stock market. If one doesn't stand to benefit from something, criticism comes a lot easier, so I forgave those naysayers the way I usually do.

What did bother me was the muted response from much of the world outside India. I expected leaders of countries that haven't been performing well to announce imminent travel plans to meet with our politicians. I imagined Prime Ministers, Presidents, and economic advisors from the United States, China, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom (all supposedly the largest economies by Nominal GDP in 2026) to make a beeline for Delhi, but there were no such announcements. This surprised me, until I realised that jealousy could be the reason. If representatives of a foreign country were to turn up in Delhi looking for advice on how to make their countries more successful, they would inadvertently be admitting to their own inefficiency. Their people would obviously not be able to stomach it.

I suspect there will be private meetings instead, so journalists won't have any indication that world leaders are turning to our amazing politicians for help. Luckily, there are no press conferences in India anymore, so these discussions are already guaranteed a certain amount of secrecy. I wouldn't be surprised if foreign economists are already in Parliament, taking notes on how to replicate the Indian model of success in their own countries.

There's one other thing on my mind: my inability to see how all this growth translates into change on the ground. I struggle to see it whenever I fly into Bombay, or while I'm on the street, or when I speak to former colleagues who are unemployed and worried about their futures. Then again, this could just be my shortsightedness at play, so I have even checked with some older people in my life, as well as a few women, none of whom offer much proof of positive change either. I ask if they feel safer than ever, and none of them do. I ask about affordability, ease of travel, value for money, and opportunities for growth, but there is no tangible evidence of anything on those fronts either. So, I have given up and now assume that everyone in my life is either a pessimist or someone who has an axe to grind when it comes to the people in charge of India.

According to economists, a healthy economy can be defined by examining three core macroeconomic goals: growth in terms of Gross Domestic Product, the unemployment rate, and how fast prices rise over time. Many modern economists argue that a true measure of societal health should also consider the Human Development Index, income distribution, and environmental sustainability. I'm sure India has been doing well on these fronts too, even if neither I nor anyone I know has noticed yet.

From now on, I will accept everything that the government says without asking for proof. It's a healthy habit.

When he isn't ranting about all things Mumbai, Lindsay Pereira can be almost sweet. He can be contacted at www.lindsaypereira.com
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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.