India has created a buzz of ‘Shining India’ in the whole world, for the past several years and is being portrayed as the world’s largest developing economic power through a global propaganda campaign by Indian governments, particularly the Modi administration. In 2023. the Indian administration worked hard to paint a positive picture of the country’s economic situation before the esteemed G20 conference. Nevertheless, a more thorough analysis of the information shows a far more complicated and worrisome reality, which the authorities concealed. India is the second most populous country in the world, therefore compared to less populated nations, even a small increase in the middle class appears to be more noticeable there. Even if the financial situation of a few crore Indians has improved, a far larger number of individuals still endure terrible and abject poverty. There are no indications that their circumstances will change anytime soon, given the state of affairs as it stands. A close examination of India’s GDP growth during the past few years paints an unsatisfactory image. The country’s growth rate has been 3.5% on average since the COVID-19 pandemic, except for a brief acceleration in mid-2022. The extreme discrepancy between this and their more optimistic measures raises questions about the reliability of the government’s economic assessments. As privileged Indians spend more on opulent products abroad, the masses cannot afford necessities. The most recent report from the Indian National Statistical Office serves as an example. It demonstrates that between April and June, production revenue grew at an annual rate of 7.8%, while expenses increased by just 1.4%. India’s growth rate decreases from 7.8% to 4.5% when utilising a composite measure, which is the average of income and spending, comparable to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis approach. In contrast to worldwide best practices, the NSO considers income data to be more credible than expenditure data. Both revenue and expenses should be taken into account in proper economic assessments. Furthermore, the data indicates worrying patterns in employment and income inequality. As privileged Indians spend more on opulent products abroad, the masses cannot afford necessities, and increased import goods in domestic expenditure reflects expanding inequality. India is not providing enough jobs, especially those that offer a decent standard of living, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of the country’s economic growth is centred on industries with little employment. Of India’s 132 crore inhabitants, almost 80 crore are impoverished. Approximately 10 crore of these are extremely poor. These numbers went up to 92 crores after the Corona disaster. Rural regions are the most common places for widespread poverty. Almost 30% of them earn less than $1.25 every day, which is not enough for one meal and a startling 68% of them survive on less than $2 every day. Many of these destitute people live in large city slums where they are unable to access basic amenities like healthcare and education as well as clean drinking water. Millions of Indians sleep on the streets every night. These poor urban infrastructures cause most people, especially children, to suffer from fatal ailments. In India, 1.4 million children do not make it to their fifth birthday each year. According to UNICEF, 25% of children in India do not have access to an education. In addition, India has the highest rate of malnutrition in the world, with over 20 million people lacking access to enough food. Only 6 per cent of Indians have access to tap water. The unemployment rate had been rising even before Corona. Due to Corona, almost 12 crore people lost their jobs in March 2020 alone. The condition of the manufacturing sector, which employs a large number of people in emerging countries, is another matter of concern. Notwithstanding government initiatives to promote “Make in India,” the manufacturing sector remains weak mainly due to low local demand caused by severe inequality and a lack of competitiveness in international markets. India, the world’s most cruel state, is fixated on asserting its grip over the region. The Indian government continues to lose a lot of its revenue on needless defence expenditures, rather than concentrating on improving social amenities and addressing poverty and other economic issues. The enormous amount of money being spent on defence could help millions of Indians escape abject poverty. India has budgeted about 71 billion dollars for defence spending for this fiscal year. Due to its tense relations with its neighbours and its fixation on having military superiority over them, India is employing severe military tactics and compelling its neighbours to make disproportionate financial investments in their security. Based on data from the Swedish organisation Spree, India is currently the third-largest defence spender in the world, after the US and China. India has spent 260% more on defence during the past 30 years. India has a long way to go in becoming the world’s most powerful nation politically, but first, it must achieve prosperity. To achieve peace in the region and establish economic prosperity in the world’s most populous region, India must give up its ambition of being the dominant force in regional defence and instead focus its limited national resources on the economic development of its people and the reduction of poverty. The writer is a freelance Content Writer and Columnist and can be reached at rakhshandamehtab@gmail.com