India may become the third biggest economic power in the world by 2030. It has recently become the 5th biggest by replacing the United Kingdom and is on the track to push Germany and Japan behind to become the 3rd only after the United States and China. However, such an economic growth model is helping the rich grow and keeping the people down by denying even jobs resulting in the rate of joblessness climbing to 8.3 percent. Thus, India is heading towards earning the double distinction for the country by 2030 as the third biggest economy with the widest economic gap between the rich and the poor. India has presently about USD 3.2 trillion economy far behind the target of a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024-25 set by PM Narendra Modi in 2019 at a time when the unemployment rate was 45 years high. According to the IMF, in 2019, India had already become the world’s fifth-largest economy with a nominal GDP of USD 2.94 trillion overtaking France (USD 2.71 trillion) and the UK (USD 2.83 trillion). Keeping this in mind, India’s growth after three years to only about USD 3.2 trillion is very slow economic progress, and at this rate, the Modi Government is not going to achieve the target of making India a USD 5 trillion economy within the next two years.
Even if India becomes the third biggest economy by 2030, it will have little meaning for the common people. Where the wealth is being created and accumulated, and at whose cost? This is a most pertinent question that should be answered first to get a clear idea about the Modi Government policy implications on favourite persons, the general rich, and the common people. The national account may show all the wealth that may even increase the per capita income but in reality, will conceal the declining income of the common people. Adani, in particular, has come to represent India’s growing economic strength, he had become Asia’s richest person in February and is now ranked third in the world with a fortune of USD 143 billion. Both Ambani and Adani are Gujarati, as our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These widespread industrial interests are representing India’s economic growth story. Both are said to be Modi’s friends, and Modi’s market reforms, including cutting corporate tax from 35 percent to 25 percent helped them most.
It is therefore clear that the kind of economic growth India is pursuing has little to do with common people because it is jobless growth. The figures of growth recently released by the Modi Government are received well by the people who are concerned only with wealth creation and accumulation, while criticised by those who emphasise that such growth has no meaning without human development and the well-being of common people. Modi’s Government is further pursuing a policy to promote more informal, gig, or platform jobs that have no social security coverage right now. The wider the gap between the rich and the poor, the greater will be the miseries of the people. Selling the dream of becoming an economic superpower to the common people is deceitful.
