Economists talk about the Crane Index, a rough guide whereby the number of cranes on construction sites gives a snapshot of the economic health, or malaise, affecting a particular city, region or country.
By those standards it is safe to assume that India - the world’s fifth-largest economy, having overtaken the UK last year - is currently in rude health and continuing its remarkable growth trajectory at a prodigious rate.
As the country marks the 78th anniversary of its independence from Britain this today, new roads, airports, seaports and urban metros are springing up everywhere, with the government of Narendra Modi having laid out more than $100 billion in infrastructure capital expenditure every year over the past three years.
Driving cars made in its own automotive industry over more than 54,000 kilometres of new national highways, a prosperous and now well-established middle class is enjoying the tangible air of an efficiently implemented economic vision.
There is no doubt that the transformation from the immediate post-independence years - when less than a sixth of Indians were literate - has been marked and profound. At the root of the liberalisation has been education, with a significant and continuing focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.
India now boasts one of the largest and youngest workforces in the world, well-versed in the latest trends in technological advance, and specialising in everything from IT and AI to arts and design.
Their strong proficiency in English - the language of the internet - and their adaptability and resilience, has made the country a global IT hub, producing world-class engineers, IT professionals and entrepreneurs, many of whom are sitting on mountains of cash, actively looking for the next big technology to back.
And, recognising the demands of an aspirant workforce, the government has just announced a new internship scheme which will benefit more than 10 million young people over the coming five years.
Parallels with China are part of the conversation about modern India, based, as they both are, on huge societies with deep cultural histories. But now increasing focus is on whether India’s expansion will allow it to overtake its greatest Asian rival.
Financial specialists have suggested that the next decade in India could very closely resemble China’s period of exponential growth in the five years from 2007, with factors such as global de-risking from China playing an important part.
Are there lessons in India’s seemingly unstoppable economic advance for the UK?
One centres round infrastructure investment where improvements in transport and power supply are “creating an environment in which manufacturing can flourish”, according to one economist.
The other is in education, specifically the drive to develop a workforce in which the complexities of the STEM subjects are second nature, and for whom the emerging technologies hold unlimited promise rather than apprehension.
The UK has had a long and fruitful partnership with India, even if the relationship has sometimes proved fractious. It could prove beneficial to consider what its former partner is now getting so right.
Dr Rashmi Mantri is Managing Director of the British Youth International College.
Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: agenda@theherald.co.uk
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