A stunted middle class may be a direct result of extreme inequality. Folks at the top don’t see teeming masses as a meaningful market, except for utilities, soap, short videos, and personal loans.
For India to sustain strong economic growth, policymakers must go beyond optics and tax cuts. Only then will the “middle-class bonanza” translate into real economic momentum.
International media also reports on the financial revolution brewing among the middle class & the north-south divide over the 2026 delimitation proposal.
Union Budget 2025-26 has clear aims: accelerate growth, enhance the spending power of India’s rising middle class, invigorate private sector investment & uplift household sentiment.
Indian middle class seethes at growing phenomenon of political parties taking their tax money and spraying it among the more numerous poorer classes to buy their votes.
Many who were so worried about the decline in the rupee over a decade ago are unwilling to speak up. They were tigers when Manmohan Singh was in charge. Now they are mice.
Global media also reported on once-a-decade exposition of St. Francis Xavier's 472-yr-old corpse in Goa, reflecting on how Christian community's being increasingly targeted in the country.
In 'Middle Class India', Manisha Pande traces the evolution of the Indian middle class during the pre-Independence era, through the freedom struggle, and following the 1991 crisis.
Manmohan Singh represented the best of the Indian middle class—what the middle class should be. Narendra Modi, by contrast, represents its worst instincts.
Islamabad-based think-tank PICSS's new report says Pakistan saw 'pronounced escalation' in violence last year, with 3,413 conflict-related deaths compared to 1,950 in previous year.
Many of you might think I got something so wrong in National Interest pieces written this year. I might disagree! But some deserve a Mea Culpa. I’d deal with the most recent this week.
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