Business Today 17 August 2025

More than three decades after India opened its doors to the world, dismantling the Licence Raj and embracing global trade and markets, the nation finds itself at another historic crossroads. Having joined the World Trade Organization ahead of China and steadily lowering barriers to trade and investment, India reaped enormous dividends—foreign capital surged in, exports flourished, and tax revenues grew, allowing the state to lift millions out of poverty. Yet, the rules-based global trade order is fraying due to the global turbulence unleashed by US President Donald Trump. Multilateralism is giving way to a fragmented, uncertain system, the contours of which are unclear. Perhaps clarity will emerge in the post-Trump era. For now, every nation is looking inward. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while reaffirming India’s ambition to become the world’s…

$18.5 TRILLION THE SIZE OF THE CONSUMER MARKET BY 2047, COMPARED WITH $2 TRILLION IN 2022, AS PER DUN & BRADSTREET 1,500 GW THE EXPECTED INSTALLED RENEWABLE ENERGY CAPACITY BY 2047. IT WAS 191 GW IN 2023 $750 BILLION THE EXPECTED SIZE OF THE INDIAN SEMICONDUCTOR MARKET BY 2047 AS AGAINST $34 BILLION IN 2023, ACCORDING TO PHD RESEARCH BUREAU 34% THE EXPECTED SHARE OF INDUSTRY IN GDP BY 2047, AS PER PHD RESEARCH BUREAU. THE FIGURE WAS 26% IN 2023. THE SHARE OF SERVICES WILL REMAIN THE SAME AT 54% THE ECONOMIC SPRINT INDIA’S ECONOMY WILL BE EIGHT TIMES BIGGER BY 2047 RISING INCOME PER CAPITA INCOME MAY CROSS $21,000, UP OVER SEVEN TIMES, IN THE NEXT 22 YEARS * PROJECTIONS SOURCE PHD RESEARCH BUREAU RISING POPULATION INDIA’S POPULATION…

INDIA WILL mark a century of Independence in 2047. In just over two decades, the country could well be among the world’s top three economies, a technological powerhouse and a decisive voice in global business and geopolitics. But there is nothing inevitable about this rise. Reaching that goal will take bold decisions, deep reforms and an unflinching commitment to inclusive, sustainable growth. This special edition of Business Today charts that path with 100 transformative reform ideas—a to-do list for policymakers, industry and citizens alike. The ideas are deliberately varied. Some are granular fixes, others are big-picture shifts. Together, they reflect a desire; India’s growth story needs to be accelerated even further. The list sets out an expansive vision for India’s future through 100 recommendations. It begins with governance and bureaucracy,…

1. GOVERNANCE & BUREAUCRACY 1. Cut the Regulatory Flab 2. A Bureaucracy for the 21st Century 3. Judicial Reforms to Avoid Tareek Pe Tareek 4. Better Cities for a Better Life 5. Clean up Election Funding 6. Scale up Digital Public Infrastructure 7. Federate the Fisc 8. Laws and Schemes Must Have Expiry Dates 9. Introduce Regulatory Impact Assessment 10. One India, One KYC 2. ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION 11. Get moving on Labour Law Reforms 12. Reimagine, Reform Land Acquisition Norms 13. A GST for Viksit Bharat 14. Expedite Disinvestment and Strategic Sales 15. Recast Inflation Targeting 16. Foster a Research-Nirbhar India 17. Overhaul the IBC 18. Decriminalise to Catalyse 19. Build Bigger, More Efficient Banks 20. Improve Consumer & Investor Protection 3. INDUSTRIAL & MANUFACTURING PUSH 21. Raise Defence spending…

A As India prepares to speed up economic growth to meet the Viksit Bharat dream by 2047, one question crops up quite often: What is to be done? That’s a question 76-year-old economist Arvind Virmani, member of the NITI Aayog, has tackled at different junctures of India’s development journey. In an interview to BT, he talks about the areas that receive lesser attention in conversations about reforms but which are equally vital to ensure that growth meets ambitions. Edited excerpts: Q: What would be the top two or three areas on which we need to work to reach Viksit Bharat status? A: Let me start with things that are less talked about. I would point to three things that I learnt and investigated over the last two-and-a-half years at the…

India’s fastgrowing young workforce is [an] advantage few countries enjoy. This alone can help it leapfrog to a high growth trajectory GROWTH IS NOT the sole objective of economic policy. It is necessary to ensure that the benefits of growth accrue to all sections. Eradication of poverty is thus an important objective. The objective of this article is to (a) examine briefly the recent trends in poverty and (b) look at the strategies needed to reduce or eliminate income and multidimensional poverty by 2047. RECENT TRENDS The estimates by R. Rangarajan and myself (2025) show that poverty ratios (rural + urban) declined from 29.5% in 2011-12 to 9.5% in 2022-23 and to 4.9% in 2023-24. Recently, World Bank (2025) released a brief on Poverty & Equity for over 100 developing…