India’s economic ascent has now been formally acknowledged by one of the world’s most influential newspapers. An in-depth article published by The New York Times titled “How India Became One of the World’s Biggest Economies” underscores what New Delhi has long argued: India is reshaping the global economic order through scale, speed, and structural transformation.
Quoting fresh official data, the New York Times reported that India expanded by a robust 7.5 percent last year, retaining its status as the world’s fastest-growing large economy for the fourth consecutive year. The paper noted that while many economists had expected India to overtake Japan in 2025, currency dynamics delayed the milestone in dollar terms. Even so, the comparison was stark. Japan grew by just 1.1 percent, while the United States, China, and Germany all posted slower growth than India.
The article highlighted that India already made history four years ago by surpassing Britain to become the world’s fifth-largest economy, a symbolic moment given the colonial past. According to projections cited from the International Monetary Fund, India is now expected to move past Japan in 2026, placing it firmly among the world’s top four economies.
The New York Times described India as “one of the world’s most consequential centers of economic gravity,” pointing out that its growth is accelerating faster than its population, now over 1.4 billion. This, the paper observed, places India on a development path unlike any other major economy.
Central to this rise is a unique mix of small enterprises and powerful family-led conglomerates. The report singled out companies such as Reliance Group and the Bajaj conglomerate as emblematic of India’s corporate landscape. Sanjiv Bajaj, chairman of Bajaj Finserv, was quoted explaining how India’s digital reforms transformed finance. From just $550 million under management in 2007, Bajaj Finserv has grown to control about $53 billion, with its market value multiplying dramatically.
The New York Times attributed much of this success to state-driven technological modernization. Over the past decade, biometric identity systems and digital payments pulled hundreds of millions into the formal banking system. India’s domestic digital payments network now processes roughly 20 billion transactions a month. As Mr. Bajaj told the paper, even tiny transactions, repeated across a massive population, generate extraordinary economic power and data-driven lending opportunities.
The article emphasized that India’s growth trajectory sharply contrasts with aging industrial powers. While economies growing at 6 to 7 percent double in size every decade, Germany and Japan struggle to maintain 2 percent annual growth. This divergence, the paper argued, is steadily shifting global economic influence toward India.
At the same time, the New York Times did not ignore India’s contradictions. Average incomes remain low, about $2,900 a year, far below those in Japan or Germany. The article noted the striking reality that billions are being invested in airports, data centers, and skyscrapers, even as around 800 million citizens rely on government food support.
Yet the paper stressed that inequality does not negate opportunity. For businesses, India’s better-off 400 million people already represent one of the largest consumer bases on earth, rivaled only by China.
Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the New York Times recalled his pledge to transform India into a fully developed nation by 2047, the centenary of independence. The article acknowledged that achieving this ambition will require faster industrial expansion, noting that manufacturing’s share of the economy has declined since the launch of the Make in India initiative. Still, it argued that India’s services-led model, spanning technology, finance, logistics, and global business services, has proven resilient and adaptive.
In its conclusion, the New York Times quoted Sanjiv Bajaj describing India as “directionally in a very exciting place,” despite imperfections. With a young, driven population and an economy compounding at unmatched speed, the paper suggested that India’s climb is far from over.
For India, this international recognition is more than validation. It is a signal that the world’s economic map is being redrawn, and India is no longer emerging. It has arrived.
