India’s Modi urged to set ‘ambitious’ economic agenda after poll humbling
Al JazeeraIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party campaigned on India’s sizeable economic expansion in the lead-up to the country’s recent national elections. Despite strong headline economic growth, nearly half of India’s population is still employed in the relatively unproductive agricultural sector – a share that rose during Modi’s second term, from 42.5 percent in 2018-19 to 45.8 percent in 2022-23, according to an Oxford Economics report. It is “ironic” that India’s robust growth under the Modi government “has come at the cost of economic stability for the lower classes”, Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, told Al Jazeera. India’s “Make in India” drive, however, has done little to create jobs for the large segment of the population that is still employed in agriculture.