“The inclusive growth strategy pursued by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has helped mitigate the growing social and economic disparities caused by rapid economic growth.” – Dr. Manmohan Singh. 'India shines' has been the political slogan for India since the beginning of the new millennium. While the global media lauds India's rising saga, millions of poor Indians are perplexed by the contrasting reality. Every day millions of educated English-speaking youth chase their “big Indian dreams”; Millions more continue their fight against poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition. The ruling parties boast of our 7-8% economic growth, continue their political blame game, promise inclusion of common people in the development process. However, common people are perplexed as they try to understand the future of India's growth story. With a billion people forming the self in the powerful BRICS group of nations, no doubt India is the potential superpower. In fact, the concern is about India's contradictory scenario in the social sector despite high economic growth. Development indicators such as poverty level, literacy rate and human development index provide us with a measuring stick and these statistics show a contrasting reality compared to what a politician promises in this country. • In India, the population below the international poverty line of $1.25 is 33%. The number is much higher when moderate poverty is taken into account. • In 2011, the global literacy rate was 84%, while we are well below 74.04%. Furthermore, gender-based discrimination in education poses an alarming threat to our social balance. • Despite having one of the oldest family programs among developing countries, India is a relatively poor performer… middle of paper… , or the current emphasis on high growth will eventually raise enough resources to invest in programs in the social sector?”YESM 2014, however, small as it is, is an attempt to answer this question, addressing India's multitude of problems and also focusing on the positives of the economy. In conclusion, I would like to say that the recent successes of democratic India are not insignificant, but the glory of vision 2020 is uncertain. This is not the fact that we are lagging behind in implementing effective socioeconomic policies, but the improvement of every sector of society is only possible when democracy is practiced with informed and reasoned public engagement. Therefore, a corruption-free state is of fundamental importance for the correct implementation of public policies. To quote Dr. Amartya Sen and Dr. Jean Dreze, “The important task is not so much to find a 'New India' but to help create one.”