Abstract: We have developed two scenarios to see how rapidly India can raise people to the standards of living implied by the Empowerment Line. The first, which we call “stalled reforms”, assumes that no bold policy measures are taken and that slow economic growth continues. The second considers an alternative path of “inclusive reforms”. The path of inclusive reforms envisages a far more positive alternative, one in which the nation takes steps to stimulate investment, job creation, and farm productivity, as well as dramatically improve the delivery of basic services. These reforms could potentially allow India to achieve an average GDP growth rate of 7.8 percent between 2012 and 2022. This could lift 580 million people above the Empowerment Line, leaving 100 million (7 percent of the population) below it in 2022 and 17 million (just 1 percent) below the official poverty line—virtually eliminating extreme poverty in just a decade. The higher GDP growth inherent in the inclusive reforms scenario generates more tax revenue that can be ploughed back into spending for basic services— and it simultaneously ensures that India meets its fiscal objectives more quickly. To achieve this goal, India will need to increase its investment rate from nearly 36 percent of GDP since 2005 to an average of 38 percent over the next ten years. The combination of higher investment, faster economic growth, and increased tax revenue could allow India to bring its fiscal deficit to 6 percent of GDP from 2017 onward while enabling a moderate but steady increase in social spending, in line with GDP growth, that could bring access deprivation in basic services down from 46 percent to just 17 percent. Although these goals are aspirational, they are feasible based on successes already demonstrated by India’s better-performing states.