"India has a cluster of challenges – one of the largest population in the world, 5.7 million people infected by the HIV virus, a desperate need for energy and water because it's adding 18 million people a year to its population, a huge Naxal (communist) movement with 20,000 people in uniform." The country also has 600 million people younger than 25, with raised aspirations, she adds.

"If India can't find jobs for these people, to allow them to participate even in some minimal way in this economic growth story, it will have political chaos on its hands. So there is no ball it can afford to drop."