This article by Jayati Ghosh features in the World Social Science Report 2016. Ghosh discusses how inequalities in India increased following the internal and external economic liberalization measures of the 1980s. Since then, the country’s economy has expanded very rapidly, particularly after 2002, reaching an average annual growth of about 6–8 per cent. The contribution discusses how the benefits of growth remain very unevenly distributed across the population. Existing sociocultural divisions – such as those operating on gender, caste and community lines – have been strengthened through intersections with new economic drivers. Inequality constitutes a real challenge for India’s future development.