OPINION Time to relabel: “Indian rate of growth” is the new benchmark

The common thread across most commentaries about India is that the country stands on the cusp of an economic leap, poised to leverage its demographics, technological prowess, and entrepreneurial spirit to emerge as one of the most dominant forces on the global stage.

The pigeonholing of economies through labels has been an oft-deployed descriptive tool of analysts. Most of these labels draw upon descriptive or geographical characteristics to depict an economy.

Korea, for instance, stood as the strongest symbol of `Asian Tigers’, as these economies grew by leaps and bounds at a scorching pace. China is sometimes referred to as the 'Dragon Economy’, associated with one of the country's most visible and culturally potent symbols. In a similar vein, India is sometimes described as the `Elephant Economy’.

There’s one label about India, however, that sticks out a rather annoying descriptor—the `Hindu’ rate of growth, something that Prime Minister Narendran Modi denounced on December 6. He saw the phrase as an attempt at deliberate distortion to link Hinduism with India’s economic stagnation during the 1970s.

The "Hindu rate of growth", coined by economist Raj Krishna in the late 1970s, had rapidly evolved as the go-to phrase among analysts to describe India's historically low annual economic growth rate. For nearly four decades, from the 1950s to the 1980s, India's GDP growth averaged a modest 3.5% per annum.

Krishna may have intended the term as an analytical observation, highlighting India's slow economic development under its then-prevailing socialist policies, especially when contrasted with the rapid industrialization and growth witnessed in many other East Asian economies during the same period.

That said, what remains unexplained is the need to attach a religious label to describe the economy’s prevailing problems, which were essentially structural. The question that still remains is: why should persistently sluggish economic expansion because of structural challenges be given a religious tag?

The phrase’s purpose as a descriptive shorthand for a chronic economic phenomenon continues to be seen as a commentary on Hindus, as if only the Hindus were responsible for India's economic stagnation and the perceived failures of its statist economic model.

On December 6, Modi spoke of India's rising global standing, saying that even as the world faces fragmentation and uncertainty, the country is emerging as a bridge builder”. PM Modi said India today stands “in a different league”, driven by confidence and resilience. “When the world talks about slowdown, India writes stories of growth. When the world faces a trust crisis, India becomes a pillar of trust. When the world is facing fragmentation, India is a bridge builder.”

The Prime Minister juxtaposed impressive figures against the decades-old economic stagnation that the derogatory label invoked, asserting that India is decisively moving from an era of aspirations to an era of achievements, scripting a new chapter as a global economic powerhouse.

His address underscored a clear message: the "Hindu rate of growth" was a historical misnomer that failed to grasp India's true potential, a potential now being fully realized on the global stage, something that mirrors most current day analyses about India.

The common thread across most commentaries about India is that the country stands on the cusp of an economic leap, poised to leverage its demographics, technological prowess, and entrepreneurial spirit to emerge as one of the most dominant forces on the global stage.

In the summer of 2013, a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley coined the term “Fragile Five” to represent emerging market economies that have become too dependent on unreliable foreign investment to finance their growth ambitions. The five members of the Fragile Five included Turkey, Brazil, India, South Africa and Indonesia.

Ten years later, in 2023, India moved up to become the world’s fifth largest economy, overtaking the United Kingdom, its former colonial ruler.

On July 30, 2025, US President Donald Trump imposed a 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods, topped it up with another 25 per cent a few days later, and described India as a “dead” economy.  Twenty five days earlier, on June 15, 2025, India became the world's fourth largest economy.

On August 15, 2025, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a bold stride into a new growth doctrine powered by `atma-nirbharta’ and next generation reforms, signalling the urgency for policy measures to accelerate growth, simplify tax rules, empower entrepreneurship, create jobs,  boost investment, and dismantle barriers to turn India into a vast market, less dependent on external factors and conditions.

By 2028, the US prepares for its next Presidential elections and Trump prepares to demit office, India would have become the world’s third largest economy.

The symbolisms are inescapable. The fastest growing major economy is on course to be the world's third largest. The elephant is on a rapid march. It is about time to relabel the short-hand  descriptor as the “Indian rate of growth” that stands out as the global benchmark.