Can India become the world’s third superpower? It faces huge challenges in 2025
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If India is to realise its dreams of ranking alongside the US and China it must maintain high growth rates and ensure the benefits of development reach the population as a whole – no easy task, as Shweta Sharma reports. In an exclusive interview with The Independent in September, Tony Blair made a bold claim – that India will rise to become a global superpower by 2050. “By the middle of this century, you’re going to have three superpowers – America, China, and you’re going to have India. All other countries are going to be small in comparison,” the former prime minister said.
![[Indian youths take a selfie photograph on the newly-built Signature Bridge in New Delhi in 2018]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/07/GettyImages-1061780010.jpg)
India’s own prime minister, Narendra Modi, has set out similar aspirations, saying India will achieve “developed” status by 2047. He also vowed to make his country “the third largest economic superpower” by the end of his third term, though he made that pledge before a disappointing set of election results that saw him lose his outright majority in June 2024.
![[Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a family photo ceremony prior to the BRICS]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/10/23/10/Russia_BRICS_Summit_89774.jpg)
Most projections for India’s future strength are based on two simple facts – that it has now surpassed China to become the most populous country in the world, and its $3 trillion economy, already the fifth-largest, is growing at a faster rate than any other major nation.
![[Women fill water from a municipal tank on May 26, 2023 in Peth Taluka village, Nashik, Maharashtra, India.]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/03/08/15/GettyImages-1493977567.jpg)
Beyond simple economics, India’s importance has also risen geopolitically; courted by the US as a counterweight to China in the Asia-Pacific yet able to maintain strong ties to Russia at the same time, it has carved out a niche that could prove a model for other Global South nations. But does diplomatic independence equate to superpower status – or is it the ability to project power abroad that defines American and Chinese dominance?.
![[A screengrab from a video taken on 20 February 2021 shows Chinese (foreground) and Indian soldiers (R, background) during an incident where troops from both countries clashed in the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Galwan Valley]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/07/GettyImages-1231271682.jpg)
