India’s Economy

       Foreign Investors Modi’s Influence Chasing China iPhone Manufacturing Chip-Making Aspirations Space Start-Ups

       Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       Supported by

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

       India’s Modi, Humbled by Voters, Faces Potent Economic Struggles

       With his grip on political power weakened, the Indian prime minister is confronting the same formidable challenge — how to generate hundreds of millions of jobs.

       Share full article

       Read in app

       Narendra Modi arrives to meet supporters at BJP headquarters after winning a third term in the general elections in New Delhi.Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times

       By Peter S. Goodman

       Reporting from across India, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Noida, Jaipur and Moradabad

       June 7, 2024, 12:00 a.m. ET

       Before the Indian election results emerged this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was widely viewed as a charismatic and popular strongman celebrated by the business world for elevating its importance, even as he failed to solve a vexing problem: how to turn swift economic growth into critically needed jobs.

       After the election, Mr. Modi finds himself staring at that same monumental puzzle, yet relegated to an uncomfortable new status. He is the head of a party that has been chastened at the polls, forcing him to forge a coalition to maintain power.

       Mr. Modi’s governing authority is likely to be constrained by the complexities of keeping his coalition partners on his side. He could not solve India’s most deep-seated economic challenge when he wielded a monopolistic hold on power. Now, he is a weakened leader who must balance additional interests, while still lacking an obvious way to improve living standards.

       “There has been a sense that employment growth has been weak in the last four, five years,” said Arvind Subramanian, a former chief economic adviser to the Modi administration, who is now a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “How do you create more jobs? This is really India’s central economic challenge, but I think the government will find itself with relatively limited tools.”

       Image

       Skyscrapers fill out the Mumbai skyline.Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times

       Image

       A man bathing in water spouting from a broken municipal water line in one of New Delhi’s many slums, in 2019, during Modi’s first term.Credit...Bryan Denton for The New York Times

       The humbling of Mr. Modi’s party resonates in part as an expression of popular frustration that India remains a land of economic peril for hundreds of millions of people, as well as a country defined by astonishing contrasts in wealth. In major cities, five-star hotels boasting sumptuous spas look down on teeming slums that lack plumbing. In rural areas, malnutrition prevails under many roofs, and families struggle to find the money to keep children in school.

       Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.

       Peter S. Goodman is a reporter who covers the global economy. He writes about the intersection of economics and geopolitics, with particular emphasis on the consequences for people and their lives and livelihoods. More about Peter S. Goodman

       See more on: Narendra Modi

       Share full article

       Read in app

       Advertisement

       SKIP ADVERTISEMENT