Hotmail's Sabeer Bhatia questions India's $4T economy: Why are so many people still leaving?

While most business leaders have been celebrating India surpassing Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy with a GDP of $4 trillion, Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia has shared a sharp critique, questioning the real-world impact of this growth on ordinary citizens.

"Everyone’s gloating about India becoming the 4th largest economy. But where’s the prosperity on the streets? Why are so many still desperate to leave?" he wrote on X. "GDP rankings mean little if people don’t feel the progress. What gives?" His comments directly challenged the narrative of widespread benefit from the economic expansion.

"India’s greatest asset is her people. Instead of celebrating GDP numbers, we should focus on educating our citizens and transforming India into the IP capital of the world," Bhatia added in a separate post.

In contrast, industrialist Anand Mahindra celebrated the achievement, describing it as the fulfilment of a "distant, almost audacious dream." "When I was in business school, the idea of India overtaking Japan in GDP felt like a distant, almost audacious dream. Today, that milestone is no longer theoretical — we’ve become the world’s fourth largest economy," he wrote on X. The Mahindra Group chairperson lauded it as "no small achievement," acknowledging Japan's "legendary productivity and resilience" and crediting India's progress to the "ambition and ingenuity of millions of Indians — across sectors, generations, and geographies."