This book highlights the development disparities in India and considers three complex areas of development – economic wellbeing, human progress and agricultural development – over a period of forty years since the 1970s. The novelty of the book lies in is its rich analytical foundation and the use of sophisticated statistical and economic tools to determine the causes of socioeconomic disparity between Indian states. The trends of inequality, polarization and disparity are highlighted with regard to income, human development indicators and agricultural production and productivity. The book also identifies the factors underlying divergence in economic and social activity in India and provides policy suggestions for bringing about more balanced and inclusive development in India.
This bookexamines inclusive growth in a range of social and economic areas in India, including physical infrastructure, vulnerable sections of the population and underdeveloped states. It provides a comprehensive study of disparity and deepens insight into understanding processes of economic and social development.
The book critically examines the high growth trajectory in India, particularly since the late 1980s, a period which is characterized by increasing inequality. Through various studies from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh -- a state more populous than Brazil and with a GDP comparable to Bangladesh -- it sheds light on the link between growth and inequality in emerging economies. The slow pace of any upward movement in terms of various development indicators in low-income Indian states is due to a number of factors, including their historical disadvantages. Over a period of time, this has resulted in widening disparities, both between different regions of these states, and between these states and other more prosperous Indian states. The book provides a holistic, yet critical, region-wise analysis of the achievements of Uttar Pradesh compared to other states and to India as a whole, in the context of indicators of inclusive development, namely, growth, employment, poverty, infrastructure, agriculture, industry, education and health. Based on the latest data and sophisticated analysis methods, it assesses inequality and development disparities, clearly identifying three major challenges that poorer states face in redressing poverty and expanding inclusive growth – increasing economic opportunities, empowering poor and marginalised groups to avail new opportunities in a rapidly changing world, and ensuring an effective safety net to reduce vulnerability. The book suggests strategies for promoting high and sustained economic growth, and highlights the significance of broadening social inclusiveness through greater and more rapid access to economic and social opportunities, and building strong social safety nets to protect the chronically poor and mitigate their risks and vulnerabilities with the help of good governance and institutions. With contributions from leading scholars from the region, it is a valuable resource for researchers working in the area of growth and inequality, as well as for policy makers from developing economies around the globe.
The book critically examines the high growth trajectory in India, particularly since the late 1980s, a period which is characterized by increasing inequality. Through various studies from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh -- a state more populous than Brazil and with a GDP comparable to Bangladesh -- it sheds light on the link between growth and inequality in emerging economies. The slow pace of any upward movement in terms of various development indicators in low-income Indian states is due to a number of factors, including their historical disadvantages. Over a period of time, this has resulted in widening disparities, both between different regions of these states, and between these states and other more prosperous Indian states. The book provides a holistic, yet critical, region-wise analysis of the achievements of Uttar Pradesh compared to other states and to India as a whole, in the context of indicators of inclusive development, namely, growth, employment, poverty, infrastructure, agriculture, industry, education and health. Based on the latest data and sophisticated analysis methods, it assesses inequality and development disparities, clearly identifying three major challenges that poorer states face in redressing poverty and expanding inclusive growth - increasing economic opportunities, empowering poor and marginalised groups to avail new opportunities in a rapidly changing world, and ensuring an effective safety net to reduce vulnerability. The book suggests strategies for promoting high and sustained economic growth, and highlights the significance of broadening social inclusiveness through greater and more rapid access to economic and social opportunities, and building strong social safety nets to protect the chronically poor and mitigate their risks and vulnerabilities with the help of good governance and institutions. With contributions from leading scholars from the region, it is a valuable resource for researchers working in the area of growth and inequality, as well as for policy makers from developing economies around the globe.
This book reviews the fulfillment of two Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), namely poverty and inequality, in the Indian subcontinent. It examines the complex interplay among development, inequality and poverty in relation to corruption, environmental resource management, agricultural adjustment to climate change and institutional arrangements, with a special focus on the Northeastern region of the country. The topics covered offer a blend of theoretical arguments and empirical data with regard to the three main themes of the book, while also providing agricultural and environmental perspectives. The book also provides guidelines for policy initiatives for harnessing the region’s potential in the areas of industry, trade, sustainable use of mineral, forest and other natural resources, nature-based tourism through proper infrastructure development, and resolving land issues to achieve inclusive development.In addition to introducing some new questions on the development-ethnic conflict interface, it uses sophisticated tools such as the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method in consumption expenditure to show the endowment, and return to endowment effects; and techniques like spatial correlation-regression to analyze regional variation, co-integration, vector autoregression, the panel data technique and the adaptation index to climate change, to understand socio-economic complexities and the effect of the concerned variables on entrepreneurship and human development.The book offers a timely contribution to our understanding of major MDGs and highlights their successes and failures. It also includes analytical frameworks that are key to future policy initiatives. Further, it disseminates approaches and methods that improve livelihoods and standards of living through poverty reduction and promoting inclusive development along with sustainable utilization of available natural resources. Putting forward various ideas for creating a more sustainable future, it inspires and encourages readers to pursue further studies to address the gaps that still remain.
The volume emphasizes the need for economic reforms with equitable development. It focuses on key inter-related elements of inclusive growth: agriculture, poverty, food security and employment, social sector, and regional disparities; examining the performance, issues and challenges. Arguing for pro-poor and people-centric policies, it suggests that growth and equity objectives should be pursued simultaneously. It also stresses the importance of women's economic and social empowerment and upliftment of socially disadvantaged sections for realizing the objective of inclusive growth.
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.
We discuss regional disparities in economic performance and living standards. We first set out some key facts, and provide a conceptual framework to help analyze whether such disparities are efficient, or instead reflect market and/or policy failures. We examine whether policy attempts to reduce regional disparities necessarily involve a trade-off between equity and efficiency. We then investigate whether policymakers should focus on boosting the economic performance of lagging regions—or, conversely, accept the presence of regional disparities, and instead assist households in lagging regions through transfer payments, investments in education, health, and other basic services, and by facilitating out-migration.
Upon the backdrop of impressive progress made by the Indian economy during the last two decades after the large-scale economic reforms in the early 1990s, this book evaluates the performance of the economy on some income and non-income dimensions of development at the national, state and sectoral levels. It examines regional economic growth and inequality in income originating from agriculture, industry and services. In view of the importance of the agricultural sector, despite its declining share in gross domestic product, it evaluates the performance of agricultural production and the impact of agricultural reforms on spatial integration of food grain markets. It studies rural poverty, analyzing the trend in employment, the trickle-down process and the inclusiveness of growth in rural India. It also evaluates the impact of microfinance, as an instrument of financial inclusion, on the socio-economic conditions of rural households. Lastly, it examines the relative performance of fifteen major states of India in terms of education, health and human development. An important feature of the book is that it approaches these issues, applying rigorously advanced econometric methods, and focusing primarily on their regional disparities during the post-reform period vis-à-vis the pre-reform period. It offers important results to guide policies for future development.
With six essays exploring different aspects of economic growth, poverty, inequality and social security, this book offers a critical perspective on India's development experience since independence. Incisive and empirically rich, the book opens up new vistas in development discourse and informs current policy debates.
