New Delhi, July 15 -- India missed the World Bank's latest income-classification upgrade by a wide margin, underscoring a weakness in the "fastest-growing" emerging economy narrative: rapid aggregate growth has not translated into incomes rising fast enough for its vast population.

Four Asian economies-Vietnam, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Jordan-moved from the lower-middle-income to the upper-middle-income category in 2026. India, despite having an economy roughly eight times the size of Vietnam's or the Philippines' and far larger than Sri Lanka's and Jordan's, remains in the lower-middle-income group.

The comparison is most relevant with Vietnam and the Philippines, both fast-growing emerging economies. Vietnam has used an export-l...