That may be 40 years away yet, but such predictions from major banks, which put India ahead of Japan by 2025 and the United States in 2050, delight many here.

The nation of 1.1 billion people -- marking 60 years since the subcontinent was partitioned on August 14-15, 1947 -- proudly sees itself well on the road to economic, political and social greatness.

Government feeds the frenzy. Commerce Minister Kamal Nath likes to brush aside speculation about India's future, boasting: "The future is India".

In a booming economy, the media massages Indian egos via blanket coverage of India's emergence as a force to be reckoned with.

The buyouts of prestige western companies, planned moonshots, new billionaires, ethnic fashion, literary or sporting heroes are all splashed over the front-pages as proof of India empowered.

It has fallen on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a technocrat less given to rhetoric, to point out the pitfalls ahead.

He warned starkly this month that agriculture -- which provides a livelihood for two-thirds of the population and about a fifth of economic output -- was in deep crisis.

"We cannot be complacent till the growth becomes inclusive and socio-economic development benefits more than half the population," said the economist who in 1991 led reforms that ended decades of socialist insulation.