What threatens India most is a persistent misdirection of priorities. Vast quantities of money continue to be poured into schemes with significant time and financial overruns. The CAG’S audit of Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase I lays this bare. The project, approved at ₹5.35 lakh crore for 34,800 km of highways, had by 2023 ballooned to ₹8.47 lakh crore with only three-quarters of the roads even awarded.

The Dwarka Expressway alone costs ₹250 crore per km — over 10 times the benchmark for national corridors. This pattern repeats across sectors — from Sagarmala to the Smart Cities Mission — revealing an obsession with the monumental at the expense of the meaningful. Even as India’s demographic advantage slips, vast numbers of its people remain under-educated and under-skilled.

The numbers tel

See Full Page