Kaushik Basu worries that weak leadership and eroding trust threaten the subcontinent’s hard-won achievements.
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Economics
Feb 17, 2026
Kaushik Basu
India’s promise is undeniable, yet political dysfunction and empty rhetoric continue to undermine its long-term prospects. The absence of reliable statistics, lagging innovation, and worsening air quality all point to institutional decay that only sustained, coordinated national action can reverse.
Devesh Kapur argues that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s priorities have precluded progress on institutional capacity.
This article is authored by Nirakar Pradhan, independent director, Abakkus Investment Managers.
Kaushik Basu highlights the perils of allowing ideology and gut instinct to override careful policy analysis and design.
The country’s economic challenge is not a shortage of optimism. It is a shortage of institutional imagination.
Despite hosting a global summit, it is a bystander in the race to develop frontier models
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