The slogan of the 21st century being the century of India that is Bharat or Hindustan has a far greater geo-strategic potential than it is acknowledged.
India supplied vaccines to 99 nations and medicines to a 150 during COVID.
"When we advocate the interests of the Global South, it is for a reason that only a member of that fraternity can appreciate. Doing the right thing is also doing the smart thing".
In dollar terms, India has added more to global GDP than any European economy in the last decade.
This has been proved first by economic leaps and in May 2025 through Operation Sindoor. Transition has been immense.
Some parts of the changes definitely came under Narendra Modi during the last 11 years, but a great extent was also done and achieved in decades prior to that. The 1991 economic liberalisation was a milestone in itself.
India is today well known for missiles, machines and money. There was a time the 'chaotic democracy' was known for monsoon fury, Masala and mysticism.
Indian diplomacy is able to broker deals. Yet New Delhi charted an independent path defying the west and maintained harmonious relationship with Russia. PM Modi's External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has on a number of occasions pointed out at the western and more particularly European folly and double standards.
India is no longer in a position asking 'others' for joining the table; it is building up a table of its own.
Experts have reasons to put it rhetorically - the emergence of this 'new India' has ended a 'delusion' of the west -- their permanent dominance in world affairs.
The gap between India and Germany—the long-reigning industrial behemoth of Europe, currently at $4.74 trillion—is just $550 billion, narrower than it has ever been. The writing is on the wall: India is on track to overtake Germany and become the third-largest economy in the world by nominal GDP within the next 12 to 24 months.
India as a country was long seen as a 'sleeping giant' of the global economy.
But it is now stirring into a position of hard power—measured not just in dreams and demographics, but in dollar terms.
India is now the fourth largest economy.
Between India and Germany; the shift is as much about momentum as it is about mathematics.
Germany’s economy is projected to grow at a sluggish nominal rate of 2.2 per cent in 2025 and 2.5 per cent in 2026, while India is clocking 9.8 per cent nominal growth in 2025 on the back of a 6.8 per cent real GDP increase and roughly 3 per cent inflation. There is some other features and uniqueness about India's growth.
That shift would mark a fundamental reordering of global economic heft.
It will be the first time since post-War Bretton Woods institutions began ranking global economies that India enters the top three in nominal GDP—behind only the United States and China.
No European will be amongst the top three.
Notably. India’s rise is driven by a cocktail of domestic consumption, digitisation, services exports.
Of course there has been a steady resurgence in manufacturing.
However, China's rise into second place was actually powered by export-led manufacturing and heavy state intervention,
In 2014, India’s nominal GDP was $2 trillion, less than half of Germany’s $4.2 trillion. Since then, India has doubled its GDP while Germany has added just $500 billion.
India exported over $325 billion in services in FY24—up from $213 billion in FY19. Software exports alone are touching $180 billion. Combine this with the rise in remittances—over $125 billion annually, the highest in the world—and you have a robust current account buffer, despite being a net importer of energy.
Germany, by contrast, is facing structural stagnation. Once the world’s model exporter, it is now grappling with a declining industrial base, skyrocketing energy costs, and negative demographics.
Putting all these into context one should also highlight India's commitment to the neighbouring countries and dozens others across the globe.
"Our objective is to create capabilities on a sustainable basis in other societies, drawing on our experiences and learnings. They can extend from the big to the small, from the complex to the obvious, from the creative to the routine. Be it engineers in Zanzibar or ‘solar mamas’ in the Pacific, from vocational training to Information Technology, from improving tax systems to ensuring security, India’s partnership footprint is large and growing," points out Dr S Jaishankar, India's External Affairs Minister.
He also puts it quite beautifully.
"I urge you to recall the adage of giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish. We in India advocate the second - the lifetime solution."
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