Best of BS Opinion: Durable growth is rarely built on a narrow base

Today's Best of BS Opinion weighs GCC expansion, liquor prohibition, jobs and growth, corporate India, and India's economic roadmap

Growth can look impressive from the top. A few cities attract global capability centres, large companies report strong profits, headline employment numbers appear decent, and governments reach for bold policy instruments when social problems demand action. But durable growth is rarely built on a narrow base. It has to spread — across cities, workers, enterprises and institutions — if it is to become resilient and inclusive.

 

“Enhancing capabilities”, our first editorial today, looks at India’s GCC ecosystem. The sector has become an important source of high-value jobs, exports and technology capability, but its future cannot depend only on Bengaluru, Hyderabad and a handful of large urban centres. India needs deeper talent pools, stronger university-industry links, better infrastructure and more attractive second-tier locations if GCCs are to keep expanding. The opportunity is not just to host more centres, but to build a wider ecosystem to support increasingly complex work.

 

The second editorial, “The spirit of liquor bans”, makes the case against relying on a single blunt instrument to solve a complex social problem. Prohibition may appear decisive, but experience shows that bans can push alcohol consumption underground, encourage illicit liquor, create enforcement problems and deprive states of revenue. The editorial argues for a broader public-health approach that combines regulation, enforcement, awareness, treatment and measures to reduce harmful drinking. Social policy works better when it addresses behaviour and incentives rather than assuming prohibition alone will make demand disappear.

 

Rajani Sinha and Akanksha Bhende’s column, “The jobs overhang on growth”, brings the broadening challenge directly to employment. India may continue to post high growth, but that growth will be difficult to sustain unless it creates enough productive jobs. Headline unemployment alone does not tell the full story. Labour-force participation, informality, underemployment, female employment, skills and the capacity of manufacturing and services to absorb workers all matter. A growing economy needs a labour market broad enough to allow more people to participate meaningfully in that growth.

 

Rama Bijapurkar’s column, “Corporate India is not always the saviour”, challenges another narrow assumption: That large formal companies will automatically generate the jobs and consumption needed for broad prosperity. Much of India’s livelihood creation happens outside big corporations — among small businesses, informal enterprises and the self-employed. Policy therefore needs to strengthen this wider economic base rather than wait for corporate India to carry the burden alone.

 

“Tomorrow’s route map for India’s economy”, A K Bhattacharya’s review of The Indian Economy: Navigating a Global Turning Point, edited by Kaushik Basu, Sonalde Desai, Ashwini Deshpande and Nirvikar Singh, widens the lens further. India’s path to a higher-income economy will depend on the interaction of jobs, investment, structural change, fiscal policy and inclusion. No single sector or reform can carry the transition.

 

India’s next phase of growth, these pieces indicate, will be stronger if more cities, more workers, more enterprises and more institutions are able to participate.