It’s amazing that despite all the challenges, we’re now the 4th largest economy in the world. Having said that, at the risk of sounding like a spoilsport, GDP comparisons only tell you so much.

When you look at important metrics like productivity, labor force participation, and perhaps most importantly, R&D spending, we have a long way to go. India spends just 0.7% of GDP on R&D, while China spends 2.4%, South Korea 4.8%, and Israel 6%.

To continue growing in an increasingly fragmented world and an uncertain future that might be shaped by AI, I’m not sure we can continue doing what we’ve done so far.

One of the biggest long-term challenges for Indian growth is this chronically low R&D spending. To be clear, this is both a government problem and a private sector problem as data shows. It’s unfair to expect the government alone to solve this. All the giving back we do through @rainmatterin is, in part, with this objective.

Unless we build an ecosystem that invests in education and research, not only will our best minds leave India, but higher long-term growth rates will remain out of reach. We’ll also miss out on taking advantage of our demographic dividend.

This isn’t an easy fix. It requires long-term efforts to transform education, streamline regulations, and create an environment with the right incentives for India’s brightest minds to discover and build in India, for India. Without this, we’ll never truly realize our potential.

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