Publication: India Country Economic Memorandum: Becoming a High-Income Economy in a Generation
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2025-03-06
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2025-03-06
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Over the past decades, India has developed at a scale and pace that few would have thought possible. From 2000 to today, in real terms, the economy has grown nearly four-fold, and GDP per capita has almost tripled. Because India grew faster than the rest of the world, its share in the global economy has doubled from 1.6 percent in 2000 to 3.4 percent in 2023, and India has become the world’s fifth-largest economy. This remarkable development story also includes a steep decline in extreme poverty and a massive expansion of service delivery and essential infrastructure. Building on these achievements, India has set the ambitious goal of becoming a high-income country by 2047. However, reaching the ambitious target of becoming a high-income economy by 2047 will not be possible in a business-as-usual scenario. In recent years, the government has introduced a host of structural reforms to transform India into a global manufacturing hub, boost infrastructure, improve human capital, and leverage digitization while at the same time bolstering macroeconomic stability. However, for India to become a high-income economy by 2047, its GNI per capita will have to increase by nearly 8 times over the current levels; growth would have to accelerate further and remain high over the next two decades, a feat that few countries have achieved. Given the less conducive external environment, India would need to maintain ongoing initiatives and expand and intensify reforms to meet this target. This report outlines what it would take to realize the vision of High-Income India.
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“World Bank. 2025. India Country Economic Memorandum: Becoming a High-Income Economy in a Generation. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42920 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
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