Will the emerging India ever arrive?

Abstract

This article discusses the ingrained impediments which are likely to stifle India's rise and growth - a phenomenon which has figured prominently in scholarly and official assessments, in India and outside, for over a decade now. Intriguingly India's rise as a global power has already been adjudged a certainty in these assessments, but the author contends that there exists an apparent disjuncture between how the world sees India and the prevailing internal impediments. Therefore, any assessment of India as a global power without incorporating these impediments would be incomplete, misplaced and hyperbolic. Of late, in the light of India's growing internal and external socio-economic and political difficulties, more and more writings and proclamations by Indian and international experts indicate emerging scepticism over India's potential as a global power. This paper takes a rollcall of India's internal impediments including, human development, institutional and security challenges which according to the author have already begun restraining India's global ascent.