Why India’s GDP Growth Isn’t Creating Jobs Or Prosperity? | How India's Economy Works | The Core
The Core
11,323 views
Why is India’s GDP growth not creating enough jobs or prosperity? Journalist Puja Mehra and economist Professor Partha Chatterjee examine India’s missing middle, weak job creation and the reforms needed to turn economic growth into rising household incomes.
India has remained one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies. Yet for millions of Indians, GDP growth has not translated into better jobs, greater economic security, stronger income mobility or widespread household prosperity.
In this episode of How India’s Economy Works, Puja Mehra speaks with Professor Partha Chatterjee, Dean of Academics and Professor of Economics at Shiv Nadar University, about the structural weaknesses preventing India’s economy from converting growth into jobs and prosperity.
At the centre of the problem is India’s missing middle. The country has millions of small businesses and a limited number of large corporations, but not enough productive, mid-sized firms capable of scaling, innovating, raising wages and creating secure middle-income jobs.
Professor Chatterjee explains why Indian firms often remain small, how policy cliffs can discourage businesses from expanding and why access to finance becomes more difficult when firms attempt to move beyond the small-business stage.
The discussion also explores how low productivity, weak competition, tariff protection, lobbying, skill shortages and resource misallocation affect job creation in India. It examines why unproductive firms survive, why innovative businesses struggle to scale and why economic growth alone cannot guarantee rising living standards.
The conversation looks beyond roads and physical infrastructure to the institutions that determine whether businesses and workers can prosper. These include education, healthcare, access to credit, land availability, judicial reform, innovation and opportunities for women in India’s labour market.
Can India’s GDP growth create widespread prosperity without more productive firms? Can industrial policy and self-reliance succeed by supporting only a handful of national champions? Or does India need an ecosystem that allows thousands of businesses to enter, compete, innovate and scale?
Watch this episode for a deeper understanding of India’s economic growth, job creation, unemployment, household prosperity, business productivity, the missing middle, industrial policy, global supply chains and the reforms required to create better jobs and rising incomes.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction
01:21 Why GDP Growth Misses Household Prosperity
03:31 India’s Missing Middle-Sized Firms
06:05 Policy Cliffs and the Education Deficit
09:30 Resource Misallocation and Skill Mismatch
12:20 Why Unproductive Firms Survive
14:29 Tariff Protection and Business Competition
16:43 Political Economy and Powerful Interest Groups
18:16 Why Roads and Business Credit Are Not Enough
20:56 Risks and Barriers to Innovation
23:46 Helping Indian Businesses Scale
28:10 Self-Reliance and National Champions
ABOUT THE GUEST:
Professor Partha Chatterjee is Dean of Academics and Professor of Economics at Shiv Nadar University. His research and commentary cover economic growth, firms, productivity, labour markets, innovation, public policy and the Indian economy.
ABOUT THE SHOW:
How India’s Economy Works examines the policies, institutions, businesses and economic forces shaping India. Hosted by Puja Mehra and published by The Core, the podcast features economists, researchers, policymakers and business leaders discussing India’s economic future.
Why is India’s GDP growth not creating enough jobs or prosperity? This episode explains India’s missing middle, weak job creation, low productivity and the reforms needed to raise household incomes. Subscribe to The Core for more conversations on the Indian economy, business, financial markets, manufacturing, technology, public policy and global economic developments.
#IndianEconomy #GDPGrowth #JobCreation #EconomicGrowth #HowIndiasEconomyWorks #TheCore
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20 Comments
Also, the energy costs are higher due to state level cross-subsidies, to fund election freebies.
But it's not benefiting the mass section of the lower middle class that forms the dominant demography of this country.
skill full youth plenty and world needs
Plenty of skilled workers and they will change the poor economy
and this will lead to good society and Transformation of
Good governance, so Good Primary education,It not only
in the hands of Private parties but it must be with the Government as PRIME OBJECT>
In the 1990s, Korea got rich. Factories moved to China.
In the 2010s, China got rich. It was Vietnam's turn, Bangladesh's turn, Indonesia's turn.
Factories didn't move.
Asia's development secret was this chain. A poor country starts with cheap labor, gets rich, labor costs rise, factories go to the next poor country. The Flying Geese Model.
China broke the chain. It got rich but didn't abandon textiles, toys, or shoes. It entered chips too, and AI as well. Xi Jinping said it openly in 2023: we can't discard traditional industries just because they're low-level.
The numbers are clear: in 2000, it was 6% of global manufacturing; today, 29%. The UN's 2030 projection: 45%. Nearly half of everything produced in the world, from a single country.
With state subsidies, it breaks prices, scales up in a domestic market of 1.4 billion, and floods the world with goods. No one can produce at that price.
This isn't just the West's problem—it's everyone's. In Thailand, 2,000 factories shut down. In Indonesia's textiles, tens of thousands lost their jobs. No need to even mention Germany.
For 50 years, every poor country had its turn.
China took its turn and didn't give it back.
No country will ever get rich off cheap labor again.
Not even India.
Stop all freebies
Export more
Manufacturing more
Export more farm products
Why India’s GDP Growth Isn’t Creating Jobs Or Prosperity? | How India's Economy Works | The Core
The Core
11,323 views
Why is India’s GDP growth not creating enough jobs or prosperity? Journalist Puja Mehra and economist Professor Partha Chatterjee examine India’s missing middle, weak job creation and the reforms needed to turn economic growth into rising household incomes.
India has remained one of the world’s fastest-growing major economies. Yet for millions of Indians, GDP growth has not translated into better jobs, greater economic security, stronger income mobility or widespread household prosperity.
In this episode of How India’s Economy Works, Puja Mehra speaks with Professor Partha Chatterjee, Dean of Academics and Professor of Economics at Shiv Nadar University, about the structural weaknesses preventing India’s economy from converting growth into jobs and prosperity.
At the centre of the problem is India’s missing middle. The country has millions of small businesses and a limited number of large corporations, but not enough productive, mid-sized firms capable of scaling, innovating, raising wages and creating secure middle-income jobs.
Professor Chatterjee explains why Indian firms often remain small, how policy cliffs can discourage businesses from expanding and why access to finance becomes more difficult when firms attempt to move beyond the small-business stage.
The discussion also explores how low productivity, weak competition, tariff protection, lobbying, skill shortages and resource misallocation affect job creation in India. It examines why unproductive firms survive, why innovative businesses struggle to scale and why economic growth alone cannot guarantee rising living standards.
The conversation looks beyond roads and physical infrastructure to the institutions that determine whether businesses and workers can prosper. These include education, healthcare, access to credit, land availability, judicial reform, innovation and opportunities for women in India’s labour market.
Can India’s GDP growth create widespread prosperity without more productive firms? Can industrial policy and self-reliance succeed by supporting only a handful of national champions? Or does India need an ecosystem that allows thousands of businesses to enter, compete, innovate and scale?
Watch this episode for a deeper understanding of India’s economic growth, job creation, unemployment, household prosperity, business productivity, the missing middle, industrial policy, global supply chains and the reforms required to create better jobs and rising incomes.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction
01:21 Why GDP Growth Misses Household Prosperity
03:31 India’s Missing Middle-Sized Firms
06:05 Policy Cliffs and the Education Deficit
09:30 Resource Misallocation and Skill Mismatch
12:20 Why Unproductive Firms Survive
14:29 Tariff Protection and Business Competition
16:43 Political Economy and Powerful Interest Groups
18:16 Why Roads and Business Credit Are Not Enough
20:56 Risks and Barriers to Innovation
23:46 Helping Indian Businesses Scale
28:10 Self-Reliance and National Champions
ABOUT THE GUEST:
Professor Partha Chatterjee is Dean of Academics and Professor of Economics at Shiv Nadar University. His research and commentary cover economic growth, firms, productivity, labour markets, innovation, public policy and the Indian economy.
ABOUT THE SHOW:
How India’s Economy Works examines the policies, institutions, businesses and economic forces shaping India. Hosted by Puja Mehra and published by The Core, the podcast features economists, researchers, policymakers and business leaders discussing India’s economic future.
Why is India’s GDP growth not creating enough jobs or prosperity? This episode explains India’s missing middle, weak job creation, low productivity and the reforms needed to raise household incomes. Subscribe to The Core for more conversations on the Indian economy, business, financial markets, manufacturing, technology, public policy and global economic developments.
#IndianEconomy #GDPGrowth #JobCreation #EconomicGrowth #HowIndiasEconomyWorks #TheCore
Join The Core Insider to get access to perks:
@thecore_in
Listeners! We await your feedback: https://tinyurl.com/TCR-Listener-Survey
The Core & The Core Report is ad supported & FREE for all readers & listeners. Write in to shiva@thecore.in for sponsorships & brand studio requirements.
For more of our coverage check out thecore.in (https://www.thecore.in/)
Support the Core Report (https://tinyurl.com/Support-the-Core-...)
Join & Interact anonymously on our WhatsApp channel (https://tinyurl.com/The-Core-WhatsApp...)
Subscribe to our Newsletter (https://www.thecore.in/newsletters/th...)
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