35 years after liberalisation
Here's what's trending across India right now:
Thirty-five years later, what is clear is that the dismantling of industrial and trade controls on that day served to accelerate India's rate of economic growth as well as the rate of its poverty reduction. But one would have to add that the promise of 1991 has been redeemed only partially. Indeed, the country once again funds itself at a cusp, confronted by new challenges of economic security, technological adequacy and an inclusive pattern of growth, which have no easy answers in a less than hospitable global climate.
Adding to this, In the 40 years to 1990-91, the economy had grown five-fold. Since the population grew two-and-a-half times in that period, income per head barely doubled as a result. In comparison, in the 35 years since 1990-91, the economy has multiplied eight-fold. And since the population has grown by 70 per cent in the interim, per capita income has multiplied more than four-and-a-half times.
Meanwhile, It goes without saying that the achievements of the second period have been built on the foundations laid in the first. Yet India basically under-performed in relation to other countries in the first period, but has a growth record in the second period that not many countries can match.
Notably, China and Vietnam show that much more could have been done. Starting from a comparable point, the first is on the threshold of achieving high-income status. Vietnam started out with less than half of India's per capita income in 1991 and now has an 80 per cent higher income level. That puts it in the upper-middle income group, whereas India, ranked in 1991 among the low-income countries, is still only in the lower-middle income group.
As per the latest buzz, Three-quarters of all countries rank above India on per capita income. India's figure is less than a quarter of the world average. However much we may pat ourselves on the back for the achievements of the past 35 years, it has not been anywhere near enough, and much remains to be done.
In further updates, Still, absolute poverty has dropped sharply. Destitution blighted 37 per cent of the population in 1991; that is down to 5 per cent. But that only takes bare survival as the yardstick. On broader indicators, the record is more qualified. On the composite multi-dimensional index (which includes health, education and other indicators), one-sixth of the people are still poor. On the UN's human development index, India is two-thirds of the way down the list of 192 countries.
On top of that, Yet there is now much-improved (though not universal) access to many basic goods and services, like clean cooking fuel, treated tap water, toilets, low-cost financial services and household electricity. Also, the country's physical infrastructure has improved noticeably in recent years.
Though some of the accomplishments are modest in an international context, India enjoys traction in a way that it did not before. That is primarily because of the size of its population, the world's largest. As the sixth-largest economy, India has among the world's biggest markets for a whole range of products and services. These reflect the birth of a large middle class with money to spend.
Source: The Tribune