Lost Decade (2008-18)

<p>Before the global financial meltdown of 2008 India's economy was thriving and its<br>GDP growth was cruising at an impressive 8.8 per cent. The economic boom impacted<br>a large section of Indians even if unequally. With sustained high growth over an extended<br>period India could have achieved what economists call a 'take-off' (rapid and<br>self-sustained GDP growth). The global financial meltdown disrupted this<br>momentum in 2008.<br>In the decade that followed each time the country's economy came close to returning<br>to that growth trajectory political events knocked it off course.<br>In 2019 India's GDP is growing at the rate of 7 per cent making it the fastest-growing<br>major economy in the world but little on the ground suggests that Indians are actually<br>better off. Economic discontent and insecurity are on the rise farmers are restive and<br>land-owning classes are demanding quotas in government jobs. The middle<br>class is palpably disaffected the informal economy is struggling and big businesses<br>are no longer expanding aggressively.<br>India is not the star it was in 2008 and in effect the 'India growth story' has devolved<br>into 'growth without a story'. The Lost Decade tells the story of the slide<br>and examines the political context in which the Indian economy failed to recover<br>lost momentum.</p>