For a long time, it looked like nothing could get in the way of India’s super-charged economy. Spurred by a healthy private sector, India experienced record GDP growth over the past decade, soaring as high as 10 percent in 2010, second only to China among the world’s largest economies. At the same time, India’s poverty rate plummeted from 45 percent in 1994 to 22 per cent in 2012, according to McKinsey. But India’s mighty “tiger” economy has stumbled. Last year, the country’s economic growth dropped to a decade low of 4.5 percent, with the rupee falling 13 percent against the U.S. dollar.

   India still ranks as Asia’s third-largest economy, but this year’s overall economic growth is expected to reach 5 percent, with an inflation rate hovering at 8 percent. India has slid into “a profound slump,” says Russell Green, Ph.D, Clayton Fellow in International Economics, James A. Baker III....