India is being paraded on global and national platforms as the world’s fourth-largest economy. With a nominal GDP of nearly $3.9 trillion, the government claims it has scripted an economic miracle. The Prime Minister thunders from every stage about India’s rise under his watch, and media outlets amplify this narrative. But behind this celebratory façade lies an undeniable reality: This is a growth story scripted by and for the elite, while the majority of Indians continue to suffer from hunger, unemployment, and deepening poverty.
The official GDP numbers obscure more than they reveal. India’s per capita income today stands at around $2,800 — or Rs 2.33 lakh per person annually. Compare this with Vietnam’s $4,300 and China’s $12,500. In rupee terms, that’s Rs 3.57 lakh and Rs 10.38 lakh per person, respectively. Far from being a global economic leader, India lags behind countries that were once considered its peers or even behind it.
Worse still, this Rs 2.33 lakh figure is itself an illusion. The top 1 per cent of Indians control over 40 per cent of the country’s wealth. They are the corporate houses and big business houses owned by people like Adani and Ambani. If we exclude the wealth of this 1 per cent, the remaining GDP available to the rest of India’s 1.4 billion people drops drastically. What remains is about Rs 130 lakh crore, leading to an actual per capita income of a little more than Rs 85,000 per year, or roughly Rs 7,000 per month. If we go further and remove the 62 per cent controlled by the top 5 per cent, the rest of the country is left with Rs 89 lakh crore, resulting in a per capita income of just Rs 67,000 a year, less than Rs 5,600 a month. This is what most Indians survive on. This is not an economy for the people — it is an economy for profit and propaganda.
In a country where 80 crore people depend on free ration schemes for their daily survival, celebrating global GDP rankings seems to be a grotesque joke. How can the same government that boasts of economic might also take credit for distributing free rations? If GDP growth is real, who is lining up for free ration? Either the country is shining, or it is starving. It cannot be both. When these contradictions are pointed out, those asking the questions are labelled anti-national.
Beyond income, India’s social and human development indicators reveal a crisis. The country ranks 134th on the Human Development Index, way behind developing economies like Sri Lanka and Vietnam. It ranks 111th out of 125 on the Global Hunger Index. 35 per cent of Indian children are stunted. Over 230 million people still live in multidimensional poverty. Female labour participation is among the lowest in the world. India ranks 127 out of 146 in the Global Gender Gap Index. On almost every index that actually touches the lives of real people—education, nutrition, health, food, housing equality — India performs dismally.
To make matters worse, the very basis on which these rankings are celebrated is questionable. The $3.9 trillion figure is calculated based on nominal GDP in current US dollar terms, heavily dependent on exchange rates. The Indian rupee is now hovering around Rs 83 to the dollar—an unprecedented low. What happens when the rupee weakens further? If the value of the dollar rises to Rs 90, the size of India’s economy in dollar terms shrinks. The same Prime Minister who once called the rupee’s value a matter of national honour is today silent as it slips year after year. India’s economy hasn’t become richer — its currency has become cheaper.
But this deceit serves a purpose. It masks the government’s failures. It offers the illusion of victory in the absence of substance. It is no coincidence that the GDP celebration comes at a time when the rural economy is in shambles, joblessness is rampant, and inflation continues to hit the poor hardest.
The truth is that this is not inclusive growth. It is a concentrated accumulation. The majority of Indians remain on the margins of this story. Farmers die by suicide. Workers walk home barefoot during pandemics. Children drop out of school. Women vanish from the workforce. And yet, a select few watch their wealth double every few years. This is not a developmental model. It is a system of organised neglect and deliberate exclusion.
If India truly wants to be a great nation, not just a large one, it must change course. The goal should not be to impress credit agencies or compete in global rankings, but to ensure that no child sleeps hungry, that every young person has a job, and that no Indian has to choose between medicine and food.
True patriotism lies in demanding answers, not in blind applause. True growth lies not in GDP charts but in lives lived with dignity. Until then, this economy remains what it truly is: Hollow at the core, glittering only at the top, and dangerously disconnected from the millions it claims to represent.
To conclude, PM Modi’s much-trumpeted Viksit Bharat @ 2047 should be examined in light of what it means for the poorest sections of our society. Growth that widens inequality, deepens ecological destruction, and disregards the majority cannot be celebrated. India urgently needs to abandon this lopsided model and chart a new path — one that is equitable, ecologically sustainable, employment-generating, and rooted in justice, dignity, and democratic planning.
The writer is general secretary, CPI
