New Delhi, June 14 -- Last month, I demonstrated how India's social capital deficiency shows up as a current account deficit through gold imports. Now I want to draw attention to another way we are losing large amounts of potential foreign exchange earnings. If Indian cities were more liveable, walkable and enjoyable, we would attract a lot more foreign direct expenditure (FDE) than the $35 billion we currently get.

According to the tourism ministry's dashboard, that is how much 20 million international tourists, including non-resident Indians, spent in total in 2024, covering leisure, medical, education and other activities.

Anupam Manur, my economist colleague at Takshashila, estimates that if we had doubled the travel earnings that y...