This article reviews the economic situation in India. These are, in fact, heady days for India, which has witnessed average economic growth of 5.6 percent over the BJP's current five-year reign. Buoyed by a booming stock market and reports that the country's GDP rose by an even stronger 8 percent during the third quarter, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee recently crowed at a political gathering, "Our growth rate has surprised the world." However, While millions of citizens have benefited from the country's recent boom--especially those in the IT and outsourcing sectors clustered around cities like Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad--hundreds of millions more are in danger of being left behind. India's jobless rate last year was a seemingly manageable 8 percent. But with the country's population surging, the numbers of people out of work or underemployed have been rising steadily. With the working-age population (15 to 60) set to balloon, the country could face social unrest unless it can find ways to funnel a mass of poorly educated people into decent jobs. One problem is the nature of India's success story. It's largely the result of investments in technology and in more modern manufacturing methods--a capital-intensive economic strategy that emphasizes productivity and efficiency, getting more output out of existing workers. "There are productivity enhancements happening all over the country, especially in sectors where the government is still a big employer, like banking, steel and telecommunications. So despite a huge growth in output, you will see low growth in employment because productivity is very low." Much of India's jobless are concentrated in a handful of poorly governed states with enormous, uneducated populations.