India

A service economy, backed by a solid industrial base

The world's fifth-largest economy in nominal terms but 149th in GDP per capita, India combines a developed service economy — software, information technology, generic pharmaceuticals (the country alone supplies about 20% of global demand for generic medicines) — with agriculture that still employs nearly half the workforce for less than a fifth of the wealth produced. The economic liberalisation reforms launched in 1991, in response to a severe balance-of-payments crisis, opened the country to trade and foreign investment and set off three decades of sustained growth. The economy remains marked by a very large informal sector, wide regional and income inequalities, and a public digital infrastructure (UPI payments, the Aadhaar biometric ID) seen as a model by several developing countries.