India’s leaders must deal with three economic weaknesses

When shashi tharoor, a stalwart member of parliament for the opposition Congress Party, criticises the current growth model as “trickle-down economics” that doesn’t trickle down, he has a partial point. Estimates of this nature are fuzzy, but from 2000 to 2022, the wealth share of the top 1% of Indians grew from 33% to 41%, making India the second-most unequal major country in the world, after Brazil. In other ways, though, the problem is a lack of trickle up. The economy is not allowing those with low incomes to become a source of growth.