India: Asia’s Next Productivity Success Story

India has created the basic rules of modern economic and political life. While the country’s institutional framework needs strengthening, it will allow India to prosper without drastic changes. Gradual economic reform has transformed India, putting it on a much faster growth path. Economic growth in the next ten years may not equal China’s current double-digit growth rate, but India is nevertheless very likely to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world, growing at a pace similar to that of Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and Korea during their period of sustained rapid economic growth. The recent acceleration in real GDP growth reflects both faster input growth as well as rising total factor productivity. However, India has weaker social pillars to support economic growth than other East Asian countries had at the time of their miracle growth years, mainly due to its poor education system. Failure to address shortcomings in education, along with inadequate physical infrastructure, and large fiscal deficits, would constrain India from reaching even faster growth.