GS Paper: GS2-19.Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.

Why in the News

India’s “almost great power” status is assessed against domestic political polarisation and stalled economic reforms. The piece argues these widen the gap between India’s geopolitical ambition and its material capability.

Why does the gap between ambition and capability persist?

1. Reform stall: Structural economic reforms needed to sustain great power level growth rates have slowed, limiting the material base India’s geopolitical ambitions depend on.
2. Domestic polarisation: Political polarisation at home diverts governance bandwidth and consensus building capacity away from the sustained reform effort great power status requires.
3. Capability versus signalling: India’s diplomatic signalling of great power ambition has outpaced the material capability, in economic scale and military modernisation, needed to back that signalling consistently.

Conclusion

The central idea is that India’s great power ambition is a signalling exercise running ahead of the material capability domestic reform stagnation and polarisation have failed to build. Closing the gap requires resuming the reform effort at home, not further diplomatic signalling abroad.