Of Debt and Delusion: India’s $747 Billion Burden and the Mirage of Neoliberal GDP Fetishism
Of Debt and Delusion: India’s $747 Billion Burden and the Mirage of Neoliberal GDP Fetishism Posted on 30th December, 2025 (GMT 15:55 hrs) ABSTRACT This article critically examines India’s external debt surge to approximately USD 747 billion by mid-2025—a near-doubling since 2014—as a hallmark of crony capitalism under the Modi regime, where liberalized external commercial borrowings (ECBs) and public sector bank hollowing facilitate upward redistribution, oligarchic consolidation (favoring conglomerates like Adani and Ambani), and asymmetric risk socialization amid volatile private dominance (over 77% non-government), USD-heavy exposure (54%), and intergenerational burdens. Intersecting with GDP misreporting flaws (IMF C-grade accounts, unorganized sector proxies inflating growth) and colonial-era inequality peaks (top 1% holding 40% wealth), this financialized precarity—diagnosed via Toussaint’s World Bank “never-ending coup” and Lazzarato’s “indebted man”—enforces neolibe...