The author is chair of Rockefeller Worldwide

In 30 highway journeys over 25 years, following elections in India with a band of writers, I’ve seen limitless surprises, none extra encouraging than the story we discovered final month within the southern state of Karnataka. It’s a brand new financial miracle, unfolding in a vibrant native democracy that defies widespread worries about one-party rule in India.

With a inhabitants of some 70mn, Karnataka is bigger than most international locations. Because the state heads to the polls on Could 10, its story issues not only for India but in addition for the world — each economically and politically.

On our final election journey to Karnataka 5 years in the past, indicators of underdevelopment — thatched roofs, rotting storefronts — have been nonetheless seen. Now they’re overshadowed by symbols of progress: pink tiled roofs and gaily painted concrete partitions. In a rural village the place beforehand we might have anticipated to see packs of stray canine, we met a breeder promoting Rottweilers for $500 a pup.

Over the previous decade, a longstanding increase in Karnataka’s capital metropolis of Bengaluru, pushed by international tech giants, started spreading to farm nation. Agriculture and associated companies joined tech in driving development. Karnataka grew a lot quicker than the remainder of India, rising from sixteenth to develop into India’s third richest state by per capita revenue, behind solely tiny Goa and Sikkim. Since India’s post-independence data started in 1960, no different main state has ever risen so quick. Karnataka’s common revenue doubled within the 2010s to $3,800.

We began our newest journey in Bengaluru, which was its dynamic previous self, solely with site visitors worse than ever. Infosys chair Nandan Nilekani informed us that individuals saved coming anyway, drawn by the pull of a tech ecosystem that attracted 45 per cent of all start-up funding in India.

From Bengaluru we headed south-west on a clean new freeway to town of Mysuru, then turned north into the back-country. In Varuna, the sort of farm city the place one typically sees water buffaloes sipping on the fringe of a muddy pond, we came across a lake with jet skis slicing throughout the floor. This picture of leisure struck us as oddly misplaced till we discovered extra of the identical: a marriage with friends in knock-off Dolce & Gabbana, a barber charging practically $5 to dye hair, an not possible sum in poorer states in India. The realisation that Karnataka is totally different now struck us on day three of our week-long journey, once we came across an condo constructing rising up in a rural village.

Karnataka grew practically 8 per cent a 12 months within the final decade, a full two factors above the nationwide common, and its financial increase is funding new welfare spending, which practically tripled within the 2010s. Welfare funds now move on to beneficiaries by India’s nationwide digital switch system, serving to Bengaluru’s increase unfold out into rural areas.

Agriculture grew 7 per cent a 12 months right here within the 2010s, nicely above the nationwide common. The state authorities has promoted extra worthwhile farm know-how and crops, equivalent to areca nuts and mangoes. Greater than eight out of 10 residents of rural Karnataka have a smartphone, double the quantity simply 5 years in the past, and new cell companies are giving farmers recent entry to credit score. Close to town of Hubli, we met a tractor components vendor who stated that, because of on-line credit score, his gross sales have been thriving.

No miracle is ideal. Voters in Karnataka say their grievances now embrace joblessness and residual poverty — which grew extra seen the farther north we travelled — and official corruption. Polls present the incumbent Bharatiya Janata get together is headed for defeat, which isn’t stunning. In India’s first-past-the-post system, small swings can topple governments. Voters throughout the nation have an extended file of tossing out incumbent governments, even when the native economic system is rising quick, and Karnataka has not returned an incumbent to energy in many years.

Defeat would go away the BJP and its allies in energy in solely 14 states nationwide, representing lower than half of India’s nationwide inhabitants. Democracy is thus as aggressive as ever in Karnataka, which can present another window on India for the various commentators who worry that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pushing the nation in direction of authoritarianism and Hindu chauvinism.

India is greatest understood as many international locations, not one, too complicated to be dominated by a single get together or chief. Although my optimism at all times grows the farther I get from the poisonous nationwide politics of Delhi, I’ve not often come away from a visit right here extra upbeat. In Karnataka, capitalism and democracy are working nicely, and as of late that counts as a real miracle — anyplace.