THE Lost Decade (2008-2018) By Puja Mehra

Before the global financial meltdown of 2008, India's economy was thriving and itsGDP growth was cruising at an impressive 8.8 per cent. The economic boom impacteda large section of Indians, even if unequally. With sustained high growth over an extendedperiod, India could have achieved what economists call a 'take-off' (rapid andself-sustained GDP growth). The global financial meltdown disrupted thismomentum in 2008.In the decade that followed, each time the country's economy came close to returningto that growth trajectory, political events knocked it off course.In 2019, India's GDP is growing at the rate of 7 per cent, making it the fastest-growingmajor economy in the world, but little on the ground suggests that Indians are actuallybetter off. Economic discontent and insecurity are on the rise, farmers are restive andland-owning classes are demanding quotas in government jobs. The middleclass is palpably disaffected, the informal economy is struggling and big businessesare no longer expanding aggressively.India is not the star it was in 2008 and in effect, the 'India growth story' has devolvedinto 'growth without a story'. The Lost Decade tells the story of the slideand examines the political context in which the Indian economy failed to recoverlost momentum.