New Delhi, April 2 -- Here is a number that should unsettle anyone betting on India's growth story: private corporate capital expenditure as a share of GDP has fallen from 16.8% in FY08 to roughly 10% in FY24.

Over the same period, India's GDP has more than tripled. The economy grew, but the animal spirits of the private sector, curiously, did not keep pace. For over a decade, the heavy lifting of capital formation has been done by the government - from highways and railways to ports and digital infrastructure.

But as any economist will tell you, a growth model that depends primarily on public capex is a car running on one engine. For India to sustain 7%-plus growth through the decade, the second engine - private investment - must roar ...