A post (here, here, and here) going viral on social media claims that, according to Morgan Stanley Research, India has not borrowed any money from the World Bank in the past three years under the Narendra Modi-led government. The post also makes several other statements about India’s economy and Prime Minister Modi, attributing them to Morgan Stanley Research. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: According to Morgan Stanley Research, India has not borrowed from the World Bank in the past three years under the Modi government, alongside other the progress of India’s economy under Prime Minister Modi.
Fact: Morgan Stanley has never published any report asserting that the Modi government has refrained from borrowing from the World Bank over the past three years. Data from the World Bank and the Government of India confirms that India has consistently taken loans from the World Bank from FY2014 to the present (FY 2025–26). Except for one statement—regarding India’s GDP potentially reaching $6 trillion by 2027—none of the claims in the viral post were made by Morgan Stanley. In a report titled “India’s Digital Leap: The Multi-Trillion-Dollar Opportunity”, published in 2017, Morgan Stanley stated that India could become a $6 trillion economy within 10 years, i.e., by 2027. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the accuracy of the viral claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search. However, we did not find any report published by Morgan Stanley as claimed in the viral post. During our search, we discovered that the same claim has been circulating on the internet since at least 2018. Therefore, the post is old, and the statements it contains do not reflect the current economic situation in the country. Some of the old posts can be seen here and here.
The post contains multiple statements. Let us examine them one by one to verify whether Morgan Stanley made those statements.
Claim 1: India, under Prime Minister Modi, has not borrowed a single dollar from the World Bank in the past three years.
We could not find any evidence to suggest that Morgan Stanley made the above statement. To verify whether the statement itself is true or false, we visited the World Bank website to verify the claim. According to the website, the World Bank Group comprises five institutions: IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development), IDA (International Development Association), IFC (International Finance Corporation), MIGA (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency), and ICSID (International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes). The IBRD lends to the governments of middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries. The IDA provides interest-free loans—referred to as credits—and grants to the governments of the poorest countries. Together, IBRD and IDA make up what is commonly known as the World Bank.
A search on the World Bank website regarding loans taken by India reveals that India has indeed taken loans between FY 2014 and FY 2025, under various categories for central and state-level projects. These loans were obtained from both the IBRD and the IDA. These loans were obtained from the World Bank’s IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and IDA (International Development Association). A year-wise breakdown of lending for the period FY2014 to FY2025 can be seen below.
According to data available on the World Bank website, the Indian government recently borrowed funds for the ‘Meghalaya Multisectoral Project for Adolescent Wellbeing, Empowerment and Resilience (MPOWER)’.
In addition, several official responses from the Government of India in Parliament—given in reply to questions regarding loans from the World Bank—further confirm that India has consistently taken loans from the World Bank from FY 2014 to the present (FY 2026) (here, here, here, here, here, and here). Based on this information, it is evident that the claim stating ‘India, under Prime Minister Modi, has not borrowed a single dollar from the World Bank in the past three years’ is false.
Claim 2: Morgan Stanley has stated that India will become a $6 trillion economy within 10 years.
A relevant keyword search revealed that Morgan Stanley did make the above statement in its report titled “India’s Digital Leap: The Multi-Trillion-Dollar Opportunity”, published in September 2017. In this report, Morgan Stanley stated that India could become a $6 trillion economy by 2027. The full report can be accessed here.
Claim 3: Forbes has stated, “India’s economy will rise manifold only because of Modi.”
We could not find any evidence to suggest that either Morgan Stanley or Forbes made the above statement regarding India’s economy. This specific quote has not appeared in any of their published reports or articles. While Forbes has published pieces that are both critical and appreciative of the Indian economy under Prime Minister Modi, it has not used the precise statement attributed to it in the viral post (here, here, here, and here).
Claim 4: In terms of ‘Economic Growth’, India has moved up 31 places to be ranked 40th among 137 listed countries.
Firstly, there is no ranking list solely based on ‘economic growth’ where India is placed 40th. However, a search for indices in which India ranked 40th among 137 countries led us to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 2017–2018 edition, where India was ranked as the 40th most competitive economy out of 137 countries. Upon reviewing various Global Competitiveness Index reports from 2014 to 2018, we found that India improved its ranking by 31 places—from 71st (out of 144 countries) in the 2014–2015 edition to 40th in 2017–2018. Therefore, the cited improvement relates to competitiveness, not economic growth, and occurred during the period from 2014–15 to 2017–18.
The Global Competitiveness Index is published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is designed to assess national competitiveness. However, much has changed since then. Under a revised methodology in the 2018 GCI report, India ranked 58th out of 140 countries, and this further dropped to 68th out of 141 countries in the 2019 report. It is important to note that the Global Competitiveness Index rankings have been paused since 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it posed to countries. The most recent edition was released in 2019.
When the same post went viral earlier in 2021, Factly published a fact-check article debunking the claims made in it, along with relevant data.
According to news reports published on 01 July 2025 (here, here, and here), India is expected to remain the fastest-growing economy in 2025 and 2026 among all the countries covered by global investment firm Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Committee (GIC). The report forecasts India’s real GDP growth at 5.9 per cent on a Q4-over-Q4 basis in 2025 and 6.4 per cent in 2026.
To sum it up, Morgan Stanley has never published any report asserting that the Modi government has refrained from borrowing from the World Bank over the past three years.
