India, June 14 -- Some statistics stop you in your tracks. They don't just tell you a story - they change the very narrative of a nation. One such number is this: India's extreme poverty rate has fallen from 27.1 per cent in 2011-12 to just 5.3 per cent in 2022-23. That means 269 million Indians - nearly the population of an entire continent - have broken free from the clutches of extreme poverty in just over a decade. Behind this staggering statistic lies not just good luck or economic growth, but a quiet revolution led by Prime Minister Modi. Eleven years of determined, ground-level governance, hard-nosed reforms, and the revival of India's most ignored strength - its cooperative economic framework.
This isn't just a policy shift; it's a...