As the year 2025, which was filled with good and bad memories, was about to end, a good news came. On December 29, the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the official information agency of the Government of India, shared the happy news that our beloved country has overtaken Japan to become the fourth largest economy in the world.
This news is a matter of relief and great happiness for every Indian. Independent India had to wait for almost 75 years to witness this moment. Our generation is lucky to have experienced this. As I read this report, my heart did not embrace this new wealth as happily as I had expected. The question arose in my mind: Was it just my imagination, or was it the true reality reflected in my beating heart?
Before we get into the truth of this situation, let’s understand what was actually said in this joyous proclamation. According to PIB, IMF’s World Economic Outlook Report (April 2025) stated that India’s economy has reached $4.18 trillion, thus overtaking Japan and becoming the fourth largest economy in the world.
GDP expected to reach $7.3 trillion by 2030
The report also claimed that this journey of prosperity will continue, and in the next two and a half to three years, the country will surpass Germany and reach the third position. India’s GDP is expected to reach $7.3 trillion by 2030.
In simple terms, this progress means we now have more money; The treasury of the country is full of wealth. However, the bitter truth of this prosperity is that the common people have not become rich; The increased wealth has not been distributed equally. Therefore, the wealth that has come has gone to a select few, or the rich have become richer, while the rays of progress that have reached the poor have failed to break the chains of darkness that enslave them. So, O progress, it is important that you move forward at a faster pace, but we have some complaints about you. Your pace is strange; You light lamps, but you also widen the distance. The way your wealth grows, you live in palaces – and we have no complaints about that – but you build your fortresses by demolishing slums. And you treat millions of people the same way; It’s painful, it hurts, and it’s also a harsh reality of your growth.
Why do you want to be so heartless? Will you not get peace without rendering the poor homeless? Will you not get promotion? Your past is repeating the same story, so tell us – why should flowers be laid on your path when you arrive? When there is no hope of getting light from the sun of progress, then why perfumes, lamps and offerings when you arrive?
Now, let us talk about Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh
There is no need to be angry at this truth. Amidst this sense of wealth, let’s go to Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh, one of the poorest districts in the country. But here, there are no roads, no vehicles to reach the villages. Thousands of people yearn for two meals a day. They remain hungry for two days at a time. If they can afford food, they have to sacrifice clothing. If they buy clothes, they have to give up food. The people of this district, 90 per cent of which is tribal, yearn for simple things like oil and combs for their hair. They are waiting for better days in their life, longing for simple things like bangles on their wrist, earrings in their ears, nose ring and anklets on their feet. These things are recorded in the NITI Aayog report, which states that this district has the highest poverty rate in the country. The story of pain does not end here. We want to feel like we have the world’s fourth-largest economy, but the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), an organization that measures poverty around the world, says Alirajpur in Madhya Pradesh is one of the poorest areas in the world. Where is the talk of a major global economic power and where is the truth of one of the poorest regions? Instead of getting lost in the illusion of wealth that cannot even feed its people, it is important to accept the truth.
Let us keep Alirajpur aside for a moment. Let us try to understand the truth of the growing gap between the rich and the poor in our country.
The World Inequality Report 2026 shows that the gap between the rich and the poor in our beloved country is the largest in the world. All the wealth of the country is concentrated in the hands of a few people. Let’s look deeper into the report; Hold your breath, and if your heart skips a beat, you will feel pain. The richest 10 percent of the country’s people have about 65 percent of the total wealth. If we narrow it down further to the top one percent, we find that they hold about 40 percent of the wealth. This means that just 15 million people own 40 percent of the country’s wealth.
