In 2014, Arun Jaitley mentioned the “neo-middle class” in the first paragraph of his Budget speech, and at least twice more before he had finished. Last week, in contrast, the high point of Piyush Goyal’s speech was an ambitious hand-out programme for 120 million farming families. From focusing on the “aspirational”, the government has gone “aam aadmi” with a vengeance.
And yet, during the intervening five years, per capita income went up by about a third—more than in any other country. It is inevitable that the benefits of growth were distributed unevenly, but poverty levels halved in the decade to
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