India at Fourth: Growth Rooted in Inclusion

Executive Summary 

1. The emergence of India as the fourth-largest economy of the world in nominal GDP is a significant milestone. In this report it wishes to take the step further of that ranking and look at the structural composition and inclusiveness of the Indian growth over the past two decades.

2. The report highlights that the strength of India is that economic growth has increasingly become based in real, productive, and socially inclusive growth and has not been based on speculative capital, or the consumption of the elite.

   
   

3. With macroeconomic data of 2004-2014 and 2014-2024, the report provides a comparative analysis based on major structural indicators in percentages of GDP: PFCE, GFCE, GFCF, ICOR, and trade and their efficiency and distribution changes.

   
   

4. An improving Capital efficiency results in a decreasing ICOR. At the same time, an escalating PFCE in GDP shows an increasing importance of household consumption, which indicates a more demand-led path of growth.

   
   

5. Investments in digital infrastructure (e.g., UPI, Jan Dhan), health (Ayushman Bharat), housing (PMAY), and rural services have been significant in improving inclusion and access to services across the country.

   
   

6. The report records a shift over to a more diversified economic foundation, characterised by the formalisation of the MSMEs, growth of the services sector, and expansion in the gig and platform-based forms of work.

   
   

7. There are DBTs and welfare schemes, as well as financial inclusion, which has expanded the social foundation of growth, particularly in women, rural familial, as well as marginalised categories of individuals, although there remain employment and regional disparities.

   
   

8. The report ends by suggesting structural indicator use in economic measurement to be institutionalised, regional equity to be advanced, and efficiency and inclusion to be maintained as a future development priority..

   
   
   
   

   Author - Sanya Verma

   
   

India at Fourth: Growth Rooted in Inclusion.

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Disclaimer:: The views, opinions and the data expressed in this report are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated organization or institution