India economy: From bad to worse

Things are only getting worse for India's sputtering economy.

GlobalPost's superb Senior Correspondent in India Jason Overdorf has been all over this story in his excellent On India blog.

Today, he filed this great report that examines the human impact of the ongoing problems in the formerly high-flying Indian economy.

Jason introduces us to several worried actors in the current economic drama now unfolding in Delhi:

“There's no more cutting back for me,” says Ram Samujh, a soft-spoken, gray-haired man who carefully takes out a pair of rimless reading glasses. “I'm already down to only the absolute necessities. I'm a daily worker,” said Samujh, whose skills give him a leg up on most Indian laborers. “One day I might get three jobs. But then I might go a week without any.”

But as Jason also reports, it's not just India's poor who are being hit.

“Things are getting very expensive,” said Bharat Singh, who, as a sub-inspector with the Delhi Police, falls smack in the middle of the $4,000-$10,000 income bracket that economists here define as the middle class. “Vegetable prices have gone up 25 percent. They are going to increase school fees 20 percent next term. We're no longer able to save any money,” Singh said.“I'm afraid. I'm really afraid. How will I arrange all the things in the coming months, or coming years. I am afraid to see the future.”

Read his full story here.

It's not a happy tale.

But it's an important one for understanding the current state of the global economy.