New Delhi, April 29 -- India is currently the world's fastest-growing major economy, a headline that invites optimism as we sprint past the $4 trillion milestone. But for most of the 1.4 billion-plus people who live in the country, headline GDP has become a mere dashboard metric-high on transactional velocity but low on household dignity.

We are witnessing a historic rupture: the link between economic growth and job creation, once the singular pulse of development, has been functionally severed.

A forensic audit of India's structural shift from 1991 to 2026 reveals a catastrophic decline in the job efficiency of our growth. During the 1990s, every percentage point of GDP growth yielded roughly 0.41% growth in formal employment.

By earl...