India's path to becoming high-income nation: Escaping 'middle-income trap'

Five key course corrections for India to become an advanced country and set a better path for others

The World Bank’s latest World Development Report says about 108 countries* are currently stuck in a middle-income trap. It defines these as countries with a gross national income (GNI) per capita between $1,146 and $14,005 in 2024 — below this threshold, a country is considered low-income, while above it, high-income. It breaks up the middle-income category (MIC) into two sub-categories — with those between $1,146 and $ 4,515 as lower middle-income (LMIC) and above that as upper middle-income (UMIC). The number of countries in the MIC group remained high at about 90 in 2000, increasing to 109 in 2010, and