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; Joe Leahy, Mumbai correspondent; and Farhan Bokhari, Islamabad correspondent.

For all the buzz about India’s booming growth, it is often easy to overlook the fetters that remain.