Opinion: A ‘Dead Economy' Growing At 7.8%

Opinion: A 'Dead Economy' Growing At 7.8% There is a simple test for whether an economy is dead. Take its four engines one at a time: household spending, investment, public building, exports Got Question about the News? Every first-year economics student learns that an economy runs on four engines. What households spend. What businesses invest. What the government builds. And what the country sells abroad. Add them up and you have GDP. A dead economy is one where the engines have stopped. So take India's, one at a time. The Accountability Gap: India Builds The AI, But Who Answers For It? Opinion | The Gulf Is Calling: India's Moment To Move From Presence To Strategic Power Global Watch | China's Himalayan Information Gap: How Floods In Nepal Exposed Beijing Opinion | RSS's Hindutva Test: How Mohan Bhagwat's New York Speech Has Exposed Fault Lines On Both Left & Right What households spend. Private consumption rose 7.1 per cent last quarter. That is not a mood; it is money staying in people's hands. The income tax exemption threshold has moved from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹12.75 lakh for salaried taxpayers. It is a raise nobody had to ask an employer for. The 2025 GST rationalisation then cut rates on everyday goods and consumer durables. Money not paid in tax does not sit still. It moves to the showroom. A household that keeps more of its salary and pays less at the counter stops deferring the two-wheeler, upgrades to the small car, replaces the ten-year-old refrigerator. That is why vehicle sales and festive retail have run at record levels. Set it against 2013, when retail inflation ran in double digits. Ask anyone who managed a household then what a kilo of onions cost, and watch their face change.........