India may soon become the third-largest economy in the world. But there is more to it

In a bout of professional enthusiasm, the chief executive officer of NITI Aayog, the Union government's policy body for transforming India, announced that the Indian economy had overtaken Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy, following the USA, China and Germany. He jumped the gun because, as NITI Aayog member Arvind Virmani pointed out, this is likely to happen a few months down the road. With a nominal GDP of $4.187 trillion, India is set to move ahead of Japan's GDP of $4.186 trillion by the end of 2025. However, as many have pointed out, the vast gap between Japan's…