For long, India was considered a country of snake charmers. A country which the colonisers thought would crumble under the weight of its own problems as a free nation, destined to hold a begging bowl before the world. A country which, in the eyes of many Western observers, simply did not have what it takes to become a developed nation in a short span of time. Today, India is proving the naysayers wrong as it continues on the path of economic development with one landmark goal in mind—to fully develop by 2047. While the world faces continuing economic uncertainties, India is reinforcing its position as a global bright spot.

The evidence for this turnaround is not anecdotal; it is backed by rigorous data from global institutions. Consider what the World Bank has revealed in its latest report. Even after raising the poverty line to a more realistic $3 per day to reflect inflation and purchasing power parity, India has managed to lift an astonishing 171 million people out of extreme poverty in the last 10 years. To put that number in perspective, it is more than the entire population of Russia.

In 2011-12, over 27 per cent of India’s population languished in extreme poverty. Today, that figure has shrunk to just 5.3 per cent, which is a remarkable turnaround for hundreds of millions of ordinary Indians. The cherry on top? India’s poverty alleviation efforts are yielding results across demographics and regions, addressing long-standing structural inequalities.

For example, rural extreme poverty fell dramatically from 18.4 per cent to 2.8 per cent, while urban extreme poverty came down from........

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