Engaging India is a weekly online column analysing the issues, trends and forces behind the business and politics shaping India and its impact on the world, which appears on FT.com India, a dedicated online section on India. Engaging India appears every Thursday morning exclusively on FT.com India and is written by Jo Johnson, the Financial Times’ South Asia bureau chief; Amy Yee, New Delhi correspondent; and Joe Leahy, Mumbai correspondent.

At a health centre in India’s Madhya Pradesh state, three-year-old Rajkumar clings to his mother, a woman named Anita whose youth is hinted at only when a smile cracks her weathered face. Rajkumar wails when his mother moves away slightly, standing by himself on the cot where she sits.