In an August 2022 speech delivered at the historic Red Fort in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a bold pledge: India will be a developed country by 2047.
The annual Independence Day address is often big on promises and grand visions, so the pronouncement didn’t stand out at the time. Yet more than a year later, the phrase Viksit Bharat—or Developed India—has come to define Modi’s economic vision for a likely third term in office in national elections that began on April 19 and run through June 1.