A big GDP milest WILL IT MEANE

The year 2025 saw key public reforms, but India faced many tests along the are within striking distance. But once the dust settles, we must contend with

- Pragya Srivastava & Payal Bhattacharya

As the year 2025 drew to a close, thousands of spectators braved Delhi's foul air, made stagnant by the unyielding winter winds, to catch a glimpse of Lionel Messi. Not long ago, it would have been a regular meet-and-greet between a legendary footballer and eager fans. But this one was different. Fans booed the city-state's chief minister for the poor air, a grievance likely unheard of in Messi's home nation of Argentina, a fellow emerging economy.

Cut to 2026, three months in. India will expand to $4 trillion in GDP by then, just $150 billion shy of beating Japan and likely to cross the latter in FY27 to reach No. 4 in the global pecking order (see chart 1). That will be a momentous milestone: the pandemic had dashed India's dream of clocking $5 trillion by 2025, and a success marker was long due. India will soon cross that goal, too.

Yet, as the confetti of success stories-and there are quite a few of them-settles, a more complex reality becomes evident, one that is represented more by the scenes at the Delhi stadium than by the accolades for milestones that are inevitable for our size.

A nation of 1.45 billion is increasingly hungry for better lives.