For years, Indians have been told to trust the headline: the fastest-growing major economy, world-beating GDP, historic momentum. A major new study by Abhishek Anand, Josh Felman and Arvind Subramanian argues that India’s GDP growth may have been misestimated for nearly two decades. Yet, private investment remained subdued, real wage growth disappointed and manufacturing never delivered the employment surge that had long been promised. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the informal economy with disproportionate force. It lies in what many economists now identify as the central contradiction of India’s current growth model.

Source: The Hindu March 27, 2026 18:44 UTC