Episode Details

In India, finding an address can feel like solving a riddle—and the cost of all that confusion is enormous. In this episode, we dive into the country’s stubborn address crisis, where vague landmarks, missing street names, and constantly changing local labels create daily chaos for couriers, e-commerce companies, and anyone trying to navigate a city. With estimates that poor addressing shaves 0.5% off India’s GDP, the stakes are higher than most people realize. We explore why land records are so tangled, how bad data fuels fraud and raises borrowing costs, and whether new digital fixes like DIGIPINs and unique parcel IDs can finally bring clarity. The question: can a nation on the rise build an address system worthy of its ambitions?

https://www.economist.com/asia/2025/06/05/the-real-reason-indians-are-lost