India’s troubled economy

Unfulfilled promise: Modi greeting the crowd during a visit to Varanasi, India, April 25, 2019. Hindu nationalism was the biggest selling point of Modi’s re-election campaign. There was little mention of job creation. - AP

BACK in 2014 when Narendra Modi was first elected, he was supposed to transform the perennially under-performing Indian economy. The Gujarat-born leader promised to replicate his home state’s success across the republic – unleashing a torrent of jobs and opportunities for all.

Instead, five years on and after a deeply divisive election, India – according to a National Statistical Office (NSO) survey – is facing rising poverty, especially in the rural areas, as well as an unprecedented fall in consumer spending – for the first time in over four decades.