India will be the fourth-largest economy in the world within this decade. If things continue like this, India will overtake Germany and only lag behind the USA, China, and Japan. The economic outlook for the world’s most populous country, home to 1.428 million people, is only 3 million more than China’s.
India’s rise has not been as spectacular as China’s, but it deserves much more attention than we have given it. So far in the 21st century, it has managed to grow at an average annual rate of more than 6%. A middle class developed during this period, which now numbers between 100 and 150 million people and could triple in size in the next 20 years. Its domestic market is becoming increasingly important for global companies. India is already the sixth-largest importer in the world. Your decisions about oil are one of the factors that move the world market. Annual crude oil purchases exceed $90 million.
In the last five years, India has overtaken France and the UK to become one of the top five economies in the world. The company has managed to position some of its brands as global references. It is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in the world and a benchmark in the digital world. Infosys is one of the largest information technology companies. The industrial and service group Tata is now the owner of some legendary brands in the automotive industry, such as Land Rover.
In 2023, India will record the highest growth among the largest economies in the world. In the first half of the year, it grew by 6.1% and in the second by 7.8%. This is slightly higher than the 5.5% for China and significantly higher than the data for European countries, including the recession hitting Germany, the “new sick man of Europe”. The drivers of Indian growth are private consumption, exports, and government spending.
In the coming years, part of India’s GDP will be boosted by social investments made by Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries: infrastructure for poor groups and those underserved by public policies. Toilets, country roads, clinics, water, and sewage are on the to-do list. Another factor that will accelerate the growth of this vast country is the incorporation of women into the labor market. In India, the labor force participation rate for women is below 25%. If it reaches the world average of 40%, it could grow between 1% and 2% more per year.
There are 14,649 kilometers between Mexico and New Delhi. The most direct flight between the two capitals takes around 21 hours. We’re far away, but we’re competing, for example, to relocate some investments that are leaving China. For Apple, India seems to be a better option for manufacturing its phones and gadgets.
An interesting fact is that India is the only country in the world that receives more remittances than Mexico. The Indian diaspora sends around 110 billion US dollars to their country every year. Some of these Indian emigrants have managed to establish themselves as executives in global companies. The CEOs of Microsoft and Google (Alphabet) were born in India.
The G20 Summit India will host the G20 summit next weekend. This group is the main place for coordinating economic policies around the world. It’s a natural platform for projecting the global image of an ambitious leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Chinese Premier Xi Jinping has said he will not go. Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro will be present on behalf of Mexico. No major agreements are expected to emerge from this meeting, not least because the Russian invasion of Ukraine remains a divisive factor. With no expectations, it is significant that the pre-summit that has attracted the most attention is the fact that the government used the Hindi name of the country for the invitations: Bharat. Is a name change planned?
