# What Can India’s Banking System Learn from the Shampoo Sachet Revolution?

1 Opinion September 22, 2019 Financial Times ![Viral Acharya](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/Viral%20Acharya%20Article.jpg?itok=ShnIBR08) By Viral Acharya > FMCG companies showed that big problems in India can be addressed by providing small solutions.

Even seasoned statisticians can be thrown off by India’s scale. Its GDP is currently about $2.9tn, which makes it the world’s fifth-biggest economy in nominal terms and the third in purchasing power parity (PPP), only behind China and the United States. But there is another way to look at these numbers. India has a population of 1.3bn and the average Indian makes only $2,100 a year in nominal terms and $6,900 in PPP terms. That ranks India 142nd on a GDP per capita basis. So there is a long way to go before everyone shares in the nation’s prosperity.

Read full [*Financial Times* article](https://www.ft.com/content/e5ff77c6-d3a9-11e9-8d46-8def889b4137?FTCamp=engage/CAPI/webapp/Channel_Moreover//B2B).

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*Viral Acharya is the C.V. Starr Professor of Economics*## More from Viral Acharya

- [Stress and Strain from NBFIs to Banks.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/opinion/stress-and-strain-nbfis-banks)
- [Losses Have Been Cut, and It’s Time to Reprivatize India’s Public Sector Banks.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/losses-have-been-cut-and-its-time-reprivatize-indias-public-sector-banks)
- [Where Do Banks End and NBFIs Begin?](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/where-do-banks-end-and-nbfis-begin)
- [The Danger of Forgetting the 2023 Banking Crisis.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/danger-forgetting-2023-banking-crisis)
- [The Triple Punch of Monetary Tightening on U.S. Mortgage Rates.](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/index%2ephp/experience-stern/faculty-research/triple-punch-monetary-tightening-us-mortgage-rates)