Growth of what?

"The good news is that Americans have never been richer. The bad news is that most of them don't feel like it," wrote Allison Schrager. "In 1967, a little more than 5% of Americans earned or received more than $150,000 (in 2024 dollars). Now more than 30% do. And it's not just the middle class that moved up: In 1967, more than 38% earned or received less than $50,000. Now that figure is 21%." "There are hundreds of Americans who are worth more than a billion dollars," "and more have the sense that something is wrong with the economy." A new study by the American Enterprise Institute finds 31% of households, up from 10% in 1979, now earn $153,864 to $461,592, enough to be considered upper middle class. "The share of wealthy households also rose 3.7%, roughly 12 times higher than in 1979, while poverty and near-poverty rates declined." man.com. "Over the past half-century, incomes have risen across the distribution, aided by economic growth, expanded opportunities - especially for women - and a stronger safety net." However, "High housing costs, expensive college education and rising healthcare expenses can stretch budgets even for households earning well into six figures. For families of color, these pressures are often more acute." The Print. An increase in double-income families and higher income for women are reasons for increasing household wealth. "In 1970, about 11% of women had college degrees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Today, about 40% of American women have bachelor's degrees, which is linked to higher lifetime earnings." CBS. "Since January 2025, manufacturing jobs have indeed fallen by about 100,000 workers, or about 0.6%. In the same period, though, manufacturing production rose 2.3%, and manufacturing shipments, unadjusted for inflation, climbed 4.2%." "The US is good at making things that happen to be in big demand right now," and "manufacturing indicators have improved since Trump's so-called Liberation Day tariffs a year ago, despite some predictions of calamity." WSJ. Maybe no calamity for the US, but a small calamity for India. "The (Indian) rupee has declined 10.8% in FY26 since the closing levels of last fiscal year. Much of this has come during the pre-war period, even when the dollar was weakening, and other currencies were gaining. This was due to a "calibrated depreciation approach" by the RBI, "massive capital outflow due to concerns over high tariffs and valuations, and widening trade deficit and high gold imports," wrote Payal Bhattacharya. More Indians are borrowing to finance their spending. "Over the past seven years, the number of Indians with outstanding debt has more than doubled, from 128 million in 2017-18 to 283 million in 2024-25," and there has been "a surge in household financial liabilities, ballooning from Rs 3.9 trillion in FY2015 (financial year 2015) to Rs 18.8 trillion FY2024 before moderating to Rs 15.7 trillion in FY2025." NDTV. And yet, "The stagflation risk is real" for the US, and India remains the world's fastest growing major economy. Earnings rising in the US, borrowings rising in India. Calamity or growth. Strange.           

Iran standing firm.

"US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces will begin implementing a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports on April 13 at 10 am ET," and "The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman." centcom.mil. On 14 April, "A US destroyer interdicted two oil tankers attempting to leave Iran,..a day after President Donald Trump's blockade went into effect, and instructed them to turn around, a US official said." Reuters. "The Rich Starry, a sanctioned Chinese oil and chemical tanker, masked its exact location in the Persian Gulf for more than 10 days," but "When it emerged into the Gulf of Oman - near where the US Navy is operating to enforce its blockade of Iranian ports - the tanker made an about U-turn." "Early signs are that after years of dodging sanctions, the Iranian shadow fleet may have met its match in the US naval blockade - its ships now appear unable to leave the Persian Gulf." WSJ. "The US and Israel hit at least 17,000 targets over five weeks of war, including factories; rail, road and port infrastructure; government buildings; and military facilities. Iranian state media put the cost of rebuilding at $270 billion." The US blockade will cost an estimated "$435 million per day, including $276 million in lost exports." And, "As many as 12 million jobs, nearly half of Iran's workforce, are at risk from furloughs and layoffs." WSJ. Given this appalling state of the economy and the prospect of real hardship, even starvation, among its people, Iran would be expected to be eager to negotiate with the US. Instead, Iran is refusing to talk unless its conditions are met. "Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has said that Iran will not enter into negotiations under pressure, threats and siege, Mehr News Agency reported." Gulf News. "The prospect of direct US-Iran talks remains uncertain as the Iranian delegation led by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departed from Pakistan after holding discussions with Pakistan's leadership." "He also delivered Iran's list of demands and reservations for ending the US-Israeli war." News18. What is the reason for Iran's resistance? The regime wants to ensure its own survival regardless of the people's suffering. "As many as 30,000 people could have been killed in the streets of Iran on Jan. 8 and 9 alone, two senior officials of the country's Ministry of Health told Time." If people starve, or die of lack of food or medicines, they will just blame the Americans and Israelis. Also, they are probably hoping that Trump will be weakened by the vicious hostility of the majority of the US media. "Both CNN and The New York Times disseminated a fake ten-point plan they claimed was from Iran - with CNN going even so far as pushing the narrative that the Iranian regime was victorious and had 'forced' the US to accept its terms." The White House. The media blame Trump for being against free speech. "Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has waged an aggressive campaign against the media unlike any in modern US history." PBS. Probably because Media Research Center found 92% of negative coverage of Trump in his first hundred days in 2025. But the report is inaccessible on every site. Is Google censoring the truth about media bias? Iran must not be allowed to hold the world to ransom. The US must win.

India invented the zero.

Election freebies announced by the DMK party in Tamil Nadu include "women from families that do not pay income tax will be given a coupon worth Rs 8,000 to purchase household appliances", Rs 2,000 per month to 13.1 million women and Rs 1,500 stipend to college students. AIADMK will give refrigerators to all rice-ration-card holders and NTK will increase jobs by creating five capitals across the state. The Wire. The 2025-26 Economic Survey warned that unconditional cash transfers (UCTs) "are making state governments bankrupt," and preventing investments in "healthcare, building schools, hospitals, roads, paying for teachers'salaries." "A meta-analysis of 115 randomized evaluations across 72 UCT programs in 34 low- and middle-income countries finds that UCTs improve consumption, food security and short-term income stability, but have little impact on consistently improving child nutrition, education, or reducing poverty," wrote Prof Neeraj Kaushal. "The population covered by social protection systems has increased from 22% in 2016 to 64.3% in 2025," so that "poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions has declined sharply from 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-21." TOI. "The Union government spent Rs 6.33 trillion on subsidies and transfers in 2023-24, up from Rs 2.76 trillion in 2018-19, a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21%." The official figures undercount actual subsidy expenditure by Rs 3 trillion and there are off-budget payments as well, wrote Aditya Sinha. In addition, the central government is providing free food grains to 813.5 million people for five years, starting on 01.01.2024 at a cost of Rs 11.80 trillion over five years. pib.gov.in. The Forest Minister of Maharashtra proposed raising Rs 120 billion to finance its Ladki Bahin (daughter, sister) Scheme by chopping down its teak plantation, wrote Ajit Ranade. India's GDP growth may be among the highest in the world, but "Among the leading signs of weakness: India is losing more people and attracting a lot less money than it used to. This decade, a net total of 6,75,000 people emigrated each year, up from 3,25,000 in the 2010s." Foreign direct investment (FDI) surpassed 4% in China and Vietnam during their boom phase. "That figure never surpassed 1.5% in India and is now just 0.1%, which is one-sixth of the emerging market average," wrote Ruchir Sharma. Indians are flocking to Russia for work. "In 2021,..5,000 work permits were approved for Indian nationals. Last year, almost 72,000 were okayed for Indians - nearly a third of the total annual quota for migrant workers on visas." Reuters. Throwing handouts to win elections leads to tax terrorism which has caused several industrialists to commit suicide (TOI). "Average citizens [often express the feeling] that most of the time attempts by tax authorities to go after taxpayers are to meet some arbitrary collection targets, instead of being based on careful investigation. The numbers seem to partly justify this suspicion: When these disagreements go to court, the government wins less than 8% of the time," wrote Mihir Sharma. With a nominal GDP at $3.916 trillion (TOI) can India afford endless handouts? Only if the rupee falls to the basement. It won't matter. After all, India invented the zero (BBC).  

To increase or not?

"India's retail inflation quickened to 3.40% year-on-year in March from 3.21% in February, government data showed." Reuters. Experts predicted it could rise to 4% if the conflict with Iran continues. Last month, "The government...extended the mandate for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to maintain retail inflation at 4%, with a tolerance band of 2 percentage points on either side, for another five years ending 31 March 2031." TOI. So, retail inflation is well under control. Apparently, "Fuel retailers are losing Rs 20 per liter on petrol and Rs 100 a liter on diesel as state-run firms continue to shield customers from oil price volatility by holding up pump rates." Costs will be passed on to consumers after 29 April, when assembly elections end. HT. The retail price of diesel is around Rs 90 per liter, varying from Rs 82.45 per liter in Chandigarh to Rs 96.48 in Thiruvananthapuram. goodreturns.in. It means, diesel prices could rise to nearly Rs 200 per liter after 29 April. "In 2023, the United States imported about 8.51 million barrels per day (b/d) of Petroleum from 86 countries." And "exported 10.15 b/d of petroleum to 173 countries and 3 US territories." So, the US was a net exporter of 1.64 million b/d of petroleum. eia.gov. Yet, on 20 April 2026, the highway price of diesel was $7.325 per gallon in Caliornia, down from $7.567 on 06 April. eia.gov. Taking 1 US gallon at 3.8 liters (unitconverters.net) and 1 US dollar at Rs 94 (xe.com), it works out to about Rs 181 per liter. The US taxes petrol at 18% and diesel at 17%. In the US, the oil industry is in the private sector. "Indian officials say the Iran war could be as disruptive to the economy as the Covid pandemic was six years ago and the damage could linger for years to come, threatening to knock the world's fastest growing nation off its path." However, they still see economic growth at 6.8%-7.2% in FY 27. ET. Does not seem like much of a knock. Actually, oil should not be that important because, "Oil imports as a percentage of GDP have fallen from 8.5% to 4.8% over the years." Petroleum products have fallen from 37% of total imports in 2014 to 26% in 2025 and the share of investments in renewables has increased from 23% in 2013-14 to over 40% in 2024-25. HDFC Fund. So why the moans? The price of crude oil fell from over $90 per barrel in 2014 to below $40 per barrel in 2015 and has stayed below $60 till this year. eia.gov. As prices fell the government merrily increased taxes on petroleum products to over 50% (cleartax.in) and raked in over Rs 40 trillion in revenue since 2014-15 to now (ppac.gov.in). On 23 April, the basket of crude oil for India cost $108.55 per barrel. ppac.gov.in. The real problem is, increasing the retail price by Rs 100 will cause prices of all goods to jump, infuriating people, and cutting taxes to reasonable levels, like in the US, could cause the fiscal deficit to balloon. If the government had passed on low prices to the people, it would have lowered prices, increased consumption and helped economic growth. People would have adjusted to any increase now. Moral of the story: don't loot the people. Honesty, after all, is the best policy.  

Official indignation.

"US President Donald Trump has indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran after a direct request from Pakistan's leadership, as both sides await a unified Iranian proposal." "Trump's announcement of an indefinite ceasefire extension came hours before the truce was due to expire, following urgent appeals from Pakistan's top leadership." msn.com. Last week, Trump "praised Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his army chief, Asim Munir, for hosting the US-Iran talks in Islamabad." "They are very extraordinary men, and continuously thank me for saving 30 to 50 million lives in what would have been a horrendous war with India," Trump said. NDTV. He has also claimed that eight planes were shot down during Operation Sindoor in May last year. TT. Clearly, Trump seems to enjoy needling Prime Minister Narendra Modi who claimed In Parliament that Pakistan begged India to stop shooting. NDTV. All that may seem trivial, but "Former US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster yesterday suggested that Pakistan's improving ties with the United States could have implications for India's strategic decision-making in the event of a future major terrorist attack originating from across the border." He said it is an "irritant" to India. ET. More worrying, "India yesterday criticized remarks made by Trump in a social media post that referred to India as part of a 'hellhole' comment, calling the remarks 'uninformed, inappropriate and in poor taste', asserting that they do not reflect the true nature of bilateral ties." ET. On cue, India's Ambassador to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra claimed yesterday that PM Modi and Trump "share bonhomie which is reflected in the wide-ranging cooperation between New Delhi and Washington." ET. US officials applied a soothing balm, saying that Trump has said, "India is a great country with a very good friend of mine at the top." DH. The craven 'godi (lapdog) media' (wikipedia) is not to be left behind. Trump's admiration for Munir is because, "It resonates with core elements of Trump's own personality that include 'narcissistic supply' seeking, admiration for authoritarian figures, a transactional approach and an insatiable craving for validation as a deal maker." ET. Trump taken care of, now Pakistan's turn. Although the ceasefire negotiations were held in Islamabad, actually "America's biggest rival, China, has emerged as the quiet force shaping the outcome," as "Iranian officials reportedly credited a last-minute push by China with securing their acceptance, a claim soon after validated by Trump." ET. How can Trump validate a private message from China to Iran? But, a loud raspberry to Pakistan nevertheless. Is India a 'hellhole'? Depends on who you ask. Opposition parties mock the BJP as a "washing machine" party because criminals join the BJP to have serious criminal charges against them disappear (The Print). Institutions such as the Election Commission of India have lost all credibility and are seen as agents of the BJP. DH. What makes India a true 'hellhole' is that rapists and murderers are consistently protected and evidence against them deliberately destroyed. Especially if the victim is a Dalit (lower caste). Wrote Ranjana Padhi. Convicted rapist and murderer Ram Rahim has been released from prison 15 times since 2017 on parole and has spent 400 days in freedom. This was reported by CNN which is American. Trump may be in "poor taste" but "uninformed" he's not . Lots of Indians agree. Silently.         

Tons of gold.

"Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra has indicated that capital account liberalisation cannot come at the cost of macroeconomic sovereignty." "Highlighting some of the prudent measures.., Malhotra said that there were controls on the capital account for residents, limits on short term foreign debt and RBI intervened in forex markets when needed." TOI. Deputy Governor T Rabi Sankar said, "The RBI remains committed to the internationalisation of the rupee, but steps in with measures whenever there is excessive volatility." msn.com. The Indian rupee is freely convertible in the current account, which is for investment purposes (Medium) but is not convertible in the capital account, which is for buying assets (Tata). "Foreign investors (FIIs) pulled out nearly $19 billion from Indian equities in 2026 so far, even as domestic investors continued to deploy money through systematic investment plans (SIP) and lump-sum allocations." FE. In effect, FIIs repatriated foreign exchange bought with Indian rupees from domestic investors. But Indians are not allowed to buy and hold foreign currency. The result is that the RBI and the government can make Indians poorer deliberately. One US dollar bought Rs 59.44 in May 2014 (Thomas Cook) when Mr Narendra Modi was first elected prime minister (wikipedia), and is at 94 to one dollar this morning (xe.com). That is an impoverishing devaluation of over 58%. A weaker currency causes inflation by  increasing prices of imports and higher prices further reduce the value of the rupee. The RBI has been tolerating retail inflation at over 4% in most years (RI) and has overseen the rupee reduced to near junk. High inflation helps the government reduce its debt by increasing tax collections and rupee devaluation reduces the value of the debt. Economics Help. Thus, the RBI has been systematically transferring the wealth of Indian citizens to the government. In 2022, the RBI allowed foreign banks to open 'Vostro accounts' in Indian banks so as to enable payment for imports in Indian rupees. pib.giv.in. The idea is that when an Indian company imports goods from a foreign company it will deposit the cost into the account of that country in an Indian bank in rupees which can then be used to pay for goods bought from India (Investopedia) by a company of the same country. This way India would save foreign exchange. This can work only if trade with another country is roughly equal but we incurred a deficit of $333.20 billion in merchandise trade and a surplus of $213.89 billion in services trade for a combined trade deficit of $119.30 billion in 2025-26. pib.gov.in. And also, the currency must retain its value. Russian banks opened vostro accounts in India to avoid Western sanctions but were stuck with over $8 billion in rupees in those accounts. They had to spend the money in buying Indian government bonds, machinery and arms. Mint. Ordinary Indians do not understand all these shenanigans but they can feel that they are being cheated somehow. So they buy gold. "Morgan Stanley economists Upasana Chachra and Bani Gambhir estimate that Indian households now hold 34,600 tons of gold worth nearly $3.8 trillion (Yahoo) which is just below India's nominal GDP at $3.916 trillion  (TOI). Ironically, India fell from 4th largest economy in the world to 6th because of the slump in the rupee. As India's central bank, the RBI should control inflation and honor the rupee. Making citizens poorer is no sovereignty. No capital account convertibility? No problem - there's gold convertibility. Tons of it.  

Perception is correct.

"India's central bank has flagged the risk of inflation becoming entrenched as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East continue to disrupt global supply chains and energy markets." Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Sanjay Malhotra "suggested that the central bank's response would focus more on managing expectations than aggressively tightening demand." ET. Meaning, he is averse to higher interest rates. "When households are asked to assign a number to current or future inflation, their responses are shaped by recent movements in the prices of everyday items," wrote Deepa Vasudevan. "The lower and more uncertain the income, the greater the inflation anxiety, and the higher the inflation is perceived to be." "Household inflation perceptions are heavily influenced by food and fuel prices." Even with the new CPI basket which assigns lower weight to food (finshots.in), "Households continue to perceive inflation 4-6% higher than the official rate." So, how is the RBI going to change public perception? By telling people they are wrong? The government has a large number of goods and services items in the CPI basket and measures inflation year-on-year but people perceive only what they buy which gives rise to 'subjective bias'. People only remember what they have purchased recently so there is 'recency bias', a sudden sharp rise in prices gives 'shock bias' and they notice only changes in prices which is 'impact bias'. Still, if their perception changes their consumption it is important for the economy, wrote Madan Sabnavis. Last year, the Economic Survey pointed out that while companies are making record profits, wages are not growing. "Profits before taxes for over 33,000 sampled companies nearly quadrupled between 2019-20 and 2022-23. Nifty 500 companies posted profit growth of 22.3% in 2023-24 alone." But employment grew by just 1.5% and, while the GDP grew at 6.7% between 2021-22 and 2023-24, "real wages for regular workers contracted by 0.07%," wrote Ajit Ranade. Indian companies operate on the principle of gouging customers while paying niggardly wages to their workers. No Indian company will dream of doubling wages as Henry Ford did, when on 5 January 1914, "he announced that henceforth the minimum wage for Ford employees would be $5 for an eight-hour day, more than doubling the previous Ford minimum wage of $2.34 for a nine-hour day." Ford Motor's profits doubled from 1914-1916. ebsco.com. Corporate social responsibility, in which companies must spend 2% of net profits on social activity, has been made mandatory cleartax.in. "Indian firms spend about Rs 340 billion on CSR, but most of it flows into low-poverty areas, and larger firms are leaving funds unspent." indiaspend.com. No wonder, worker protests broke out in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh recently. BBC. In 2012, the General Manager Human Resources was burned to death at Maruti Suzuki's car plant in Haryana. TOI. When people are financially stressed even a slight rise in prices can seem intolerable. The RBI is not serious about inflation control, achieving its target only in 2025 (RI). Perception is correct. It's not bias.  

The price of cheap food.

On 31 December 2025, "Cut to 2026, three months in. India will expand to $4 trillion in GDP by then, just $150 billion shy of beating Japan and likely to cross the latter in FY27 to reach No 4 in the global pecking order." India will soon cross $5 trillion, wrote Pragya Sravastava and Payal Bhattacharya. However, "At an individual level, Indians remain behind. Per capita GDP - the real deal - is estimated at $2,818 for 2025-26, and puts India among the 50 poorest countries." Instead of rising to 4th, India has slipped to 6th according to the IMF's World Economic Outlook (April 2026). As per the IMF's estimate in April 2025, India should have been at $4,187.017 billion in April 2026, with Japan at $4,186.431 billion and the UK at $3,839.18 billion. Instead, India's nominal GDP is at $3,916 billion with the UK at $4,003 billion and Japan at $4,435 billion. TOI. This is partly because GDP is measured in US dollars and the Indian rupee has fallen from 84.5484 on 30 April 2025 (exchangerates.org.uk) to 93.33 to one dollar this morning (xe.com). Also, the base year for the GDP has been updated from 2011-12 to 2022-23 and the methodology has been changed to international standards. Accordingly, the nominal GDP in FY26 is calculated at Rs 345 trillion as opposed to Rs 357 trillion projected earlier. Kashmir Life. A research paper by Abhishek Anand, Josh Feldman and Arvind Subramanian have reworked the numbers. "Officially India's so-called 'gross value added' (an indicator of economic output from the production side) between 2011 and 2023 grew at an average rate of 5.9% in real terms. With the corrections, that average rate drops to 4-4.4% per year, according to Anand et al." The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) strongly disagreed. Mint. In December 2025, the economy was said to be in a 'Goldilocks period', with 8.2% growth in the second quarter of 2025-26 and consumer price index (CPI) inflation below 2%. ET. The glee is because the CPI inflation rate came in at 1.33% year-on-year in December 2025, with food prices contracting by -2.71%. pib.gov.in. That may not be something to celebrate as "Cheap food for the urban consumer has been secured by shifting the burden of inflation control on to the farmer." "When output prices fail to cover the full cost of production, debt ceases to be a choice and becomes a structural inevitability. In India, nearly 70% of farm households are trapped in a cycle of borrowing, with small and marginal farmers, who constitute 85% of all cultivators, bearing a disproportionate share of this burden." DH. In supreme irony, "The Union Cabinet... approved a two-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance (DA) for central government employees and dearness relief (DR) for pensioners, raising both to 60% of basic pay and pension respectively." HT. Dearness means higher prices or inflation. So, this pampered, overpaid crowd gets 60% extra cash every month while farmers are suppressed. The GDP series may be new, but the exploitation is old. They get 60%. Farmers borrow. It's redistribution. Indian style.       

Dreaming of stars.

"The indigenously designed and built Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu successfully attained its first criticality on 6th April 2026, marking the initiation of a sustained chain reaction." "Once fully operational, India will become only the second country in the world after Russia to operate a commercial fast breeder reactor." pib.gov.in. "During the same time India's first PFBR achieved criticality, Bengaluru-based startup Pranos raised $6.8 million in seed funding to build India's first commercial fusion reactor prototype." "Fusion-based reactor technology is gaining traction with a couple of Indian-startups looking at power generation by 2035, while thorium-based rectors are a few decades away." "India is already contributing Rs 7.45 billion in 2026-27 for a global fusion project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), a multi-country endeavour located in France." BT. India's top companies Reliance and Adani are interested. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)  spent "$74 million on the Mars orbiter Mangalyaan and $75 million on...historic Chandrayaan-3 - less than the $100m spent on the sci-fi thriller Gravity." Nasa's Maven orbiter cost $582 million and Russia's Luna-25, which crashed on the moon's surface, cost $133 million. BBC. Although, India has a track record of achieving great scientific success on a shoestring budget, $6.8 million is really loose change for fusion research. China Fusion Energy and Neo Fusion of China have budgets over $2 billion, while Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Helion Energy of the US have budgets of nearly $3 billion and over $1 billion respectively. FEB. Tokamak technology has been around since !960. The Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) was built at Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in 1980 and entered service in 1982 but it could never achieve break-even, which means it used more power than it produced. It was dismantled in 2002. wikipedia. In December 2022, "an experiment carried out at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California had for the first time managed to produce more energy than it than it consumed via nuclear fusion," but "The experiment in California was carried out under special conditions that cannot be replicated anywhere else in the world and produce modest results in terms of the amount of energy generated," wrote Marcos Pivetta. Perhaps, the biggest hurdle will be electricity. ICRA estimates electricity demand to grow by 5-5.5% in FY 2026 and by a compound annual growth rate of 6-6.5% over the next five years. ET. It is not sure whether this takes into account that "India's data center capacity is expected to surge nearly six-fold from about 1.5 GW in 2025 to 8-10 GW by 2030, while electricity consumption from the sector is expected to rise sharply from 10-15 terawatt hours (TWh) in 22024 to 40-45 TWh by 2030." FE. It's good to dream of producing fusion energy of stars in India. Others have tried and failed. At least it's cheap at $6.8 million.