In this episode of Beyond GDP: The Social Progress Podcast, host Michael Green, CEO of the Social Progress Imperative, speaks with Dr. Amit Kapoor, Chairman of the Institute for Competitiveness, about the challenges behind India’s rise and why measuring progress requires looking beyond GDP.

Dr. Kapoor explains how India’s development story is shaped by social progress indicators, environmental pressures, and shifting global economic dynamics. From foreign aid and international development to urban pollution and global influence, the conversation explores how countries can measure success in ways that reflect the real well-being of their citizens.

They also discuss why GDP alone cannot capture a nation’s progress, what alternative metrics reveal about inequality and sustainability, and how India’s trajectory may influence global development in the decades ahead.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why GDP is an incomplete measure of national progress
• How India’s social progress has evolved over the past decade
• The global impact of foreign aid spending
• Why many of the world’s most polluted cities are in India
• How economic strength translates into geopolitical influence

Timestamps

00:00:00 Introduction & why India’s development story matters

00:01:38 Is India’s social progress slowing down?

00:03:35 Does foreign aid actually work?

00:04:11 Measuring progress beyond GDP

00:09:42 Why social progress indicators matter

00:13:21 India’s development trajectory and inequality

00:18:10 India’s pollution crisis and public health

00:20:22 Why solving pollution is so complex

00:23:32 Economic power and global influence

00:25:58 India’s role in the global economy

00:26:03 Can economic growth solve inequality?

00:27:39 Final thoughts on measuring progress beyond GDP

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Brazil is ranked 52nd in the world for social progress but behind that number are 5,570 municipalities each fighting their own hidden crises. In this episode, Michael Green sits down with Melissa Wilm from IPS Brasil to uncover four on-the-ground stories of what happens when data meets real communities.

From two rival Brazilian capitals turning competition into collaboration, to a small Amazon town where malnutrition had nothing to do with healthcare, to a health secretary who changed one thing and transformed his entire community, to a city that discovered its data had been wrong all along this is what evidence-based policymaking actually looks like in practice.

The 2026 IPS Brasil Social Progress Index launches in May. Explore the full data tool at ipsbrazil.org.br

00:00:00 Introduction — Brazil's place in global social progress
00:01:11 Meet Melissa Wilm & IPS Brasil
00:01:36 Brazil's social progress profile: success and unfulfilled potential
00:02:33 How the index works across 5,570 municipalities
00:05:15 Case Study 1: Curitiba vs Belo Horizonte — healthy competition
00:10:15 Case Study 2: Capinzal do Norte — the food crisis hiding in the farmland
00:13:19 Small town, global relevance — the ultra-processed food crisis
00:15:47 Case Study 3: Água Azul do Norte — the clinic that changed everything
00:17:46 Case Study 4: Abaetetuba — when the data was wrong all along
00:20:59 The 2026 IPS Brasil index — what's coming in May
00:21:30 Prediction
00:24:10 Wrap-up & where to find IPS Brasil

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Is the loneliness epidemic a policy failure?

In this episode of the Beyond GDP Podcast, Michael Green speaks with Kim Samuel, founder of the Belonging Forum, about the growing crisis of social isolation, and why belonging may be the missing metric in public policy.

While GDP measures economic output, it tells us little about whether people feel included, represented, or connected.

New data from the Belonging Barometer shows:

• 21% of people don’t feel they belong
• 41% of people with disabilities report frequent loneliness
• Young women report the highest levels of isolation

We explore:

• The difference between loneliness and belonging
• Why social isolation is rising globally
• Climate anxiety, geopolitics, and generational uncertainty
• Whether technology strengthens or weakens belonging
• Why belonging may become a policy priority within five years

Please follow and rate our show!

Explore our work at https://www.socialprogress.org/

Interested in the Social Progress Index? Learn more.

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