Friday, December 05, 2025 | 09:51 AM ISTहिंदी में पढें
Business Standard
Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

BS@50: The story of India's 50-year journey of high growth and development

India had started to turn corner around the time Business Standard was born. Attention to under-addressed areas can now put it on course to becoming a truly high-growth, 'high-development' economy

India had started to turn corner around the time Business Standard was born. Attention to under-addressed areas can now put it on course to becoming a truly high-growth, ‘high-development’ economy
premium

What transforms the India story is the size of its population. While on per capita income, the country ranks 136th, that income when multiplied 1,400 million times makes IT the fifth largest economy | Imaging: Ajay Mohanty

T N Ninan
It may not have seemed so at the time, or at least not in the way it might be understood today, but 50 years ago India reached a turning point. At the time, there was an economic crisis and political turmoil, with the decisive action being the imposition in 1975 of Emergency rule by Indira Gandhi. But that was overturned in less than two years. What proved more long-lasting was the new direction in economic policy, barely noticed at the time, and following that, an end to India’s long-term under-performance as an economy.

Until then, the country