India’s Middle Class Hits a Breaking Point

For decades, India’s growth story has rested on the spectacular rise of its middle class. But a new book argues that this very group—roughly 40 million income-tax–paying households—is now under acute strain. Facing a convergence of job disruption, wage stagnation, and rising debt, the middle class may no longer be the engine of growth it once was. This is the argument made in a new book titled, Breakpoint: The Crisis of the Middle Class and the Future of Work . It is authored by Saurabh Mukherjea , along with Nandita Rajhansa and Sapana Bhavsar Saurabh is the founder of Marcellus Investment Managers and the author of six previous books. Prior to setting up Marcellus, Saurabh was the CEO of Ambit Capital. He is also a Founding Director of the Association of Portfolio Managers in India Nandita is an economist and a small and midcap analyst at Marcellus. She’s the co-author of a national bestseller, Behold the Leviathan: The Unusual Rise of Modern India , which was published in 2024. Milan speaks with Saurabh and Nandita about the Indian middle class’s most vulnerable moment since 1991, the hollowing out of middle-skill jobs, the structural challenges with India’s education system, the worrying trend in declining placement rates and salaries, and the explosion in household debt. Plus, the trio discuss how AI and automation are remaking the Indian economy—both for good and for ill. Episode notes: Saurabh Mukherjea and Nandita Rajhansa, “ Educated and employed but still struggling: India's middle class under strain ,” BBC , March 30, 2026. “ A Sixth of Humanity and the Dreams of a Nation (with Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian),” Grand Tamasha , October 22, 2025. Saurabh Mukherjea, Nandita Rajhansa and Sapana Bhavsar, “ Graduate and unemployed: India’s middle-class rulebook for career & success no longer works ,” ThePrint , March 23, 2026.

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India’s Middle Class Hits a Breaking Point is an episode from Grand Tamasha by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This episode is 00:56:05 long.

This episode was published on Apr 15, 2026.

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