Free and subsidised provision, from cash transfers and free bus travel to electricity, rice, and school meals, has become central to electoral competition in India's southern states. This article examines whether such schemes support substantial economic growth. Using a comparative, desk-based analysis of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, and drawing on Reserve Bank of India, NITI Aayog, NFHS-5, and PLFS data alongside experimental and quasi-experimental literature, it classifies schemes by growth channel: human-capital enabling, consumption-supporting, input-distorting, and purely redistributive. The analysis finds that child-focused and women-targeted schemes yield credible long-run productivity gains. Unconditional transfers and input subsidies mainly deliver welfare and political stability rather than growth, and they can crowd out capital expenditure when debt-financed. Regional growth owes more to human capital, industrial capacity, and administrative quality than to freebies as such. The article concludes design principles for fiscally sustainable, growth-compatible welfare.