New Delhi, May 10 -- "Our first kartavya (duty) is to accelerate and sustain economic growth by enhancing productivity and competitiveness."

This statement by India's finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this year's budget speech set a clear imperative: that productivity and competitiveness are not incidental to India's growth story, but necessary conditions for its long-term economic development.

Its significance has grown clearer since. The Iran-US war has had cascading effects across the globe, again underscoring that in a world of geopolitical disruption, competitiveness is not a policy aspiration but a structural necessity.

Against this backdrop, two questions are central. What is the current state of India's competitiveness? An...