Modi, who could well win a popular five-year mandate for the third time in 2024, would by then be within touching distance of lifting India's entire populace from the dumps of extreme poverty. The World Bank reckons this could happen as early as 2030.
Some 364 million Indians - a bigger number than the entire population of the United States - are still extremely poor, but this figure has been halved from 640 million to 369 million (from 55 percent to 28 percent) in the last decade, most of which progress occurred during Modi's first term (2014-2019).
Comment: That's jaw-dropping. At this rate, they'll do it in half the time it took China.
Extreme poverty isn't about the money you have in your pockets, which incidentally is less than $1.90 per day in monetary terms. Global standards follow the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which focuses on health, education and living standards; measuring them through 10 indicators of nutrition, child mortality, schooling years, school attendance, sanitation, cooking fuel, drinking water, electricity, housing, and assets. Those who are lacking in one-third of these parameters are considered extremely poor.
Comment: Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
If you just get basic services and infrastructure to people, not 'jobs', they'll do the rest themselves. India is doing this at a time when it's easier and cheaper than ever before to roll out mass infrastructure, but still, it takes high levels of organization and leadership to make it happen.