Reframing the middle class

In defining and thinking about the middle class, we need to move away from rankings and income to quality

This column has advocated, and will continue to advocate, that it is time for us in India to shift our gaze and our goals from where we stand in world rankings to a more inward preoccupation with how to make ourselves stronger and fully realise our enormous latent potential. Therefore, it is time we moved forward and reframed the discussion on the middle class, a pet topic for many.

The reframing must shift from “how many Indians are there with income between X and Y” — usually broadly defined and yielding different numbers by different people — to “what is the