Using case studies of both China and India, this book reinforces the fact that the processes of economic growth and development are dynamic and organic in the sense that structural and institutional elements are not only interrelated, but also constantly changing in their patterns of interactions — more so during the transitional period of both countries. Inclusiveness or its lack in some specific socio-economic sector/context, geographical region/state or economy as a whole is critically analysed, using recent data on both the countries from different sources.
After first analysing the economic development processes of emerging Asian economies in general, this book explores the development implications of India’s seventy years (1947-2017) of socio-economic policy regimes. It discusses structural dualism and the digital divide, which it identifies as the major socio-economic structural elements of the Indian economy, along with the external forces of globalisation. Since the adoption of comprehensive economic reforms in 1991, India has been liberalising its economy, due in part to the rising pressures of globalisation. However, critics have argued that Indian liberalisation policy has aggravated unemployment, regional inequality and poverty, and also increased India’s external vulnerability. This book tests the validity of these arguments, and provides readers a deeper understanding of the structural and institutional elements of the articulation of Indian society. It also examines the paradoxical political and economic effects of the information and communication (ICT ) industry in India, due to the economic disparities between the beneficiaries of the ICT windfall and those unable to reap those benefits. Lastly, by investigating the integration of key traditional sectors into modern sectors, the book provides policy suggestions for tackling the sectoral and segmental disarticulation that currently characterises Indian society.
Employment is a critical part of the macro-economy and a key driver of economic development. India’s employment policy over the past three decades provides an important case study for understanding how government attitudes to the labour market contribute to an emerging economy’s growth and development. This study contains important insights on the policy challenges faced by one of the world’s most populous, labour abundant economies in securing employment in a context of structural change. The book considers India’s approach to employment policy from a national and global perspective and whether policy settings promote employment intensive growth. Chapters in the first half of the volume evaluate India’s approach to employment policy within the national and international context. This includes the ILO Decent Work program, the national agenda for inclusive growth, and national regulatory frameworks for labour and education. Chapters in the second half of the volume focus on how employment policy works in practice and its impact on manufacturing workers, the self-employed, women, and rural workers. These chapters draw attention to the contradictions within the current policy regime and the need for new approaches. Employment Policy in Emerging Economies will interest scholars, policy makers and students of the Indian economy and South Asia more generally. It will support undergraduate and postgraduate academic teaching in courses on economic development, global political economy, the Indian economy and global labour.
The result of two years work by 19 experienced policymakers and two Nobel prize-winning economists, 'The Growth Report' is the most complete analysis to date of the ingredients which, if used in the right country-specific recipe, can deliver growth and help lift populations out of poverty.
Prior to the initiation of economic reforms and trade liberalization 36 years ago, China maintained policies that kept the economy very poor, stagnant, centrally-controlled, vastly inefficient, and relatively isolated from the global economy. Since opening up to foreign trade and investment and implementing free market reforms in 1979, China has been among the world's fastest-growing economies, with real annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaging nearly 10% through 2016. In recent years, China has emerged as a major global economic power. It is now the world's largest economy (on a purchasing power parity basis), manufacturer, merchandise trader, and holder of foreign exchange reserves.The global economic crisis that began in 2008 greatly affected China's economy. China's exports, imports, and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows declined, GDP growth slowed, and millions of Chinese workers reportedly lost their jobs. The Chinese government responded by implementing a $586 billion economic stimulus package and loosening monetary policies to increase bank lending. Such policies enabled China to effectively weather the effects of the sharp global fall in demand for Chinese products, but may have contributed to overcapacity in several industries and increased debt by Chinese firms and local government. China's economy has slowed in recent years. Real GDP growth has slowed in each of the past six years, dropping from 10.6% in 2010 to 6.7% in 2016, and is projected to slow to 5.7% by 2022.The Chinese government has attempted to steer the economy to a "new normal" of slower, but more stable and sustainable, economic growth. Yet, concerns have deepened in recent years over the health of the Chinese economy. On August 11, 2015, the Chinese government announced that the daily reference rate of the renminbi (RMB) would become more "market-oriented." Over the next three days, the RMB depreciated against the dollar and led to charges that China's goal was to boost exports to help stimulate the economy (which some suspect is in worse shape than indicated by official Chinese economic statistics). Concerns over the state of the Chinese economy appear to have often contributed to volatility in global stock indexes in recent years.The ability of China to maintain a rapidly growing economy in the long run will likely depend largely on the ability of the Chinese government to implement comprehensive economic reforms that more quickly hasten China's transition to a free market economy; rebalance the Chinese economy by making consumer demand, rather than exporting and fixed investment, the main engine of economic growth; boost productivity and innovation; address growing income disparities; and enhance environmental protection. The Chinese government has acknowledged that its current economic growth model needs to be altered and has announced several initiatives to address various economic challenges. In November 2013, the Communist Party of China held the Third Plenum of its 18th Party Congress, which outlined a number of broad policy reforms to boost competition and economic efficiency. For example, the communique stated that the market would now play a "decisive" role in allocating resources in the economy. At the same time, however, the communique emphasized the continued important role of the state sector in China's economy. In addition, many foreign firms have complained that the business climate in China has worsened in recent years. Thus, it remains unclear how committed the Chinese government is to implementing new comprehensive economic reforms.China's economic rise has significant implications for the United States and hence is of major interest to Congress. This report provides background on China's economic rise; describes its current economic structure; identifies the challenges China faces to maintain economic growth; and discusses the challenges, opportunities, and implications of China's economic rise.
"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Foreword by Prof. Kaushik Basu This book traces the development experience of one of India’s most dynamic and prosperous states, Punjab, which has provided the country with a much-needed degree of food security. The relative regression of Punjab’s economy in the post-economic reforms period and slow current economic growth give cause for concern. The contributions in this book address the question of why the structural transformation of Punjab’s economy has fallen into the middle-income trap. Each investigates the policy constraints influencing the relative stagnation of the economy and suggests appropriate measures for alleviating them. By integrating theoretical constructs and new evidence, the authoritative contributions diagnose the nature of the current problems and offer practical solutions. They cover important issues such as the crisis of agrarian transition, agrarian markets and distributive justice, employment growth and transition to non-agriculture sectors, fiscal policy, external factors in economic transformation, and perspectives on rejuvenating the state’s economy.
Middle India and Rural-Urban Development explores the socio-economic conditions of an ‘India’ that falls between the cracks of macro-economic analysis, sectoral research and micro-level ethnography. Its focus, the ‘middle India’ of small towns, is relatively unknown in scholarly terms for good reason: it requires sustained and difficult field research. But it is where most Indians either live or constantly visit in order to buy and sell, arrange marriages and plot politics. Anyone who wants to understand India therefore needs to understand non-metropolitan, provincial, small-town India and its economic life. This book meets this need. From 1973 to the present, Barbara Harriss-White has watched India’s development through the lens of an ordinary town in northern Tamil Nadu, Arni. This book provides a pluralist, multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspective on Arni and its rural hinterland. It grounds general economic processes in the social specificities of a given place and region. In the process, continuity is juxtaposed with abrupt change. A strong feature of the book is its analysis of how government policies that fail to take into account the realities of small town life in India have unintended and often perverse consequences. In this unique book, Harriss-White brings together ten essays written by herself and her research team on Arni and its surrounding rural areas. They track the changing nature of local business and the workforce; their urban-rural relations, their regulation through civil society organizations and social practices, their relations to the state and to India’s accelerating and dynamic growth. That most people live outside the metropolises holds for many other developing countries and makes this book, and the ideas and methods that frame it, highly relevant to a global development audience.
This book advances the debate on socio-economic development and multinational corporations (MNCs). It provides an actor-centered perspective and develops the framework called ‘Conflating Capitalisms’ that allows for a better understanding of both MNC-induced institutional change in the host country and the subsequent impact on local development. The book uses the empirical case of Western MNCs in Latin America. It applies a sequential mixed-method design, including a large-scale elite survey on corporate behavior and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with local decision-makers on the institutionalization of German dual vocational training (DVT) in Brazil. The book presents strong evidence for both behavioral contradiction in the host country - with MNCs showing alien-to-the-system behavior - and subsequent actor-induced institutional change, with varied developmental impact. Additionally, the book offers novel insights into MNCs’ handling of missing complementary institutions and the institutionalization process of coordinated practices in Latin America. This book appeals to scholars, students, and practitioners who are interested in advancing the field of development and MNCs.
China and India are the most extraordinary economic success stories of the developing world. Both nations economies have grown dramatically over the past few decades, elevating them from two of the worlds poorest countries into projected economic superpowers. As a result, the numbers of Chinese and Indians living in poverty have rapidly fallen and per capita incomes in China and India have quadrupled and doubled, respectively. This book investigates the reasons for these staggering accomplishments and the lessons that can be applied both to other developing nations and to the problem of poverty that remains in these two countries. The contributors pay particular attention to agriculture and the rural economy, examining how initial conditions and investments and the prioritization and sequencing of different policies and strategies have led to successes, and how the agricultural and rural sectors connect to overall economic expansion. They also emphasize the importance of anti-poverty programs and safety nets in helping poor people escape poverty. The book offers a set of policy and strategic options for future growth and poverty reduction. These include setting the right priorities for public spending, identifying trade and market reforms, building social safety nets for the poorest of the poor, and building accountable institutions that can provide public goods and services effectively. The book concludes by examining future challenges to China and Indias economic development, such as the need to ensure growth that is sustainable, equitable, and environmentally friendly. The Dragon and the Elephant offers valuable insights to development specialists anxious to multiply the benefits experienced by two of the greatest economic successes in recent times.
