A post doing the rounds on the internet recently claimed that India did not borrow any money from the World Bank in the last three years – under the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government. The claim was attributed to Morgan Stanley Research.
However, we found that the viral post is a collection of false and misleading claims which relies on old reports.
CLAIM
The four claims made in the post, which are attributed to Morgan Stanley Research, are:
“Post from S Gurumurthy -
This is put out by Morgan Stanley Research.
1. In the Last 3 yrs unlike any other past PMs, Mr Modi has NOT BORROWED $1 from the World Bank.
2. It is Anticipated that in the next 10 yrs India's GDP would surpass $6 Trillion.
3. Following that Forbes Magazine says "India's Economy to rise manifold ONLY because of Modi"
4. The recent release of Economic Growth of 137 Countries says:
a. India has moved up 31 places to be RANKED 40 amongst 137 listed countries.
b. India has NEVER ever reached such a spot since Independence.
Forbes Magazine has praised this warmly and has quoted that this was made possible ONLY because of Modi's efforts. LASTLY, no magazines, newspapers have even mentioned this TRUTH (sic).”
The same post was shared by many on Facebook and Twitter.
The viral post was sent to us on our WhatsApp tipline.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
CLAIM 1: INDIA HAS NOT BORROWED ANY MONEY FROM WORLD BANK
The first claim said that “in the last three years unlike any other past PMs, Mr Modi has NOT BORROWED $1 from the World Bank.”
We checked on the Rajya Sabha website and came across an answer given by the Ministry of Finance on 15 September 2020 which mentioned that the Indian government has received three loans worth $2.5 billion to support government’s COVID-19 response. Clearly, the claim that India didn’t borrow even a dollar falls flat.
Further, a detailed year-wise breakup of the money that India owes to the World Bank is available on their website.
CLAIM 2: INDIA’S GDP WILL SURPASS $6 TRILLION IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS
This claim is true. However, it was in the year 2017, that Morgan Stanley’s India research and equity strategist Ridham Desai had said that “India will grow to become a $6 trillion economy and achieve upper-middle income status by 2026-27.”
CLAIM 3: FORBES MAGAZINE SAID “INDIA’S ECONOMY TO RISE MANIFOLD ONLY BECAUSE OF MODI”
We could not find an article in the Forbes Magazine that said, “India’s Economy to rise manifold ONLY because of Modi”. Forbes Magazine has published articles that were both critical as well as appreciative of the economy under PM Modi.
CLAIM 4: INDIA AT 40th POSITION IN ECONOMIC GROWTH
Firstly, there is nothing known as the “economic growth” list.
Second, the data presented in the viral post is dated. We searched for “India economic growth 40 position” and came across a news report from 2017 which mentioned that as per ‘The Global Competitiveness Report 2017-2018’ India ranked 40 out of 137 countries, which was a spot lower when compared to the previous year.
The report is published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and aims to measure national competitiveness.
Further, we reached out to Morgan Stanley and they refused publishing any such research. Similar claims have been made in 2019 and The Quint’s WebQoof team had debunked the claim back then.
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