India as the world's next major trading bloc?

New Delhi

A NEW common market is being formed. It has a bigger economy than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, more states than the European Union (EU) has members, and twice the population of North America. It's called India.

For more than six decades since independence, India's 29 states have operated almost as separate countries. They set their own taxes, charged import duties on goods from neighbouring states, had their own politics, culture and even languages.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to change that, using his popularity to replace more than a dozen levies with a single…