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The World Ahead | Business in 2024

Sluggish investment is holding India back

Will the coming year be any different?

A construction worker building pillars for a bridge in India.
Image: Getty Images

By Tom Easton

Strong headline growth, and the possibility of offsetting China as a location for global production, have raised expectations for India. It is the world’s fifth-largest economy, and potentially larger than Germany by 2025, so it would be reasonable to assume that businesses, foreign and domestic, are pouring in cash. New factories pumping out iPhones, wind turbines and batteries suggest they are.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2024 under the headline “Missing money”

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