We Sent An Economist To India And He Was Blown Away

India's becoming one of the most powerful economies on the earth fast . In just a few decades, it's gone from a slow-growing closed economy to the fifth largest in the world, rivaling the United Kingdom . Today, it's expanding at around 5% a year, roughly twice the pace of the most developed countries . The scale is massive . India [music] surpassed China to have the largest population in the world . Plus, unlike much of the world, the workforce [music] is young, motivated, and growing . And it's building infrastructure at a staggering pace . Highways, airports, metros, entire cities expanding [music] almost overnight . It's digital economy is exploding . How did this happen? What ? What does it actually look like on the ground ? And what does India's rise mean for the rest of the world ? To answer that, I did what we always do on Business Explains the World . I got out there . Off to another one. I f . I flew halfway across the world to India . I walked [music] through ancient ruins from millennia past . Nerd inside of me is totally giddy right now . And stepped inside today's fastest-growing steel industry . It's on fire ! I saw firsthand how a country can skip and still rise into a global powerhouse . If [music] India can pull this off, it doesn't just change its future . It helps redefine where growth comes from, how economies develop , and how the global system, one the US has helped to shape for decades , evolves from here. . So, I don't want to take my big coat to India . So, I'm going to take it off and then run through the snow really fast . [laughter] Here we go . Hey, everybody. I'm in India . To understand India's economy today, we have to start at the beginning . Over here, we have [music] the Iron Pillar of Delhi