Ruchir Sharma’s new book Breakout Nations considers expectations of growth while deciding the breakout nations. A breakout nation exceeds the expectations. Another component he considers is the per capita income. If India grows at 4-5 per cent, it is underperforming since its per capita income is $1500. As against this, if Korea grows at 4 per cent, it is a huge achievement since its per capita income is $20000. India needs to grow more to get out of poverty because of lower base of per capita income. All countries are not able to sustain the bursts of growth, and become developed countries. That happens because nations driven to the wall adopt reforms and grow, but soon abandon the same very reforms.

The period between 2003 and 2007 was unique, where every single emerging market did well, and India too rode a global liquidity tide accelerating her growth rate from 5.5-6 per cent to 8-9 per cent. The expectations got too high, and India mistook the boom as being something unique to her.