India has become the fourth largest economy in the world due to a strong economic growth but still has a low per capita income, the Economic Survey revealed today.
“India has emerged as the fourth largest economy globally with a high growth rate and has improved its global ranking in terms of per capita income. Yet, the fact remains that its per capita income continues to be quite low,” it said.
“India has moved up the ranks, but is still the poorest among the G-20,” the survey added.
The per capita income of India stood at $ 1,527 in 2011, it said. “...this is perhaps the most visible challenge. Nevertheless, India has a diverse set of factors, domestic as well as external, that could drive growth well into the future,” the survey said.
Between 1980 and 2010, India achieved a growth of 6.2 per cent, while the world as a whole registered a growth rate of 3.3 per cent. As a result, India’s share in global GDP more than doubled from 2.5 per cent in 1980 to 5.5 per cent in 2010, it said.
Consequently, India’s rank in per capita GDP showed an improvement from 117 in 1990 to 101 in 2000 and further to 94 in 2009. China, however, improved its rank from 127 to 74 during the same period.
G-20 or the Group of 20 nations was formed in 1999 after the East Asian crisis as a forum of finance ministers and central bank governors.
Meanwhile, the survey said any slowdown in eurozone, which accounts for 19 per cent of the global GDP, could impact the Indian economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast that the eurozone is likely to go through a mild recession in 2012.
I am happy to see smaller states from the North-East doing relatively well. Even though this region had been neglected in the past, recent efforts by the government have done wonders for this region. However, a lot still has to be done.
Per capita income in India is far too low by international standard. This depicts the real
quality of life of acommon man.Education,health, transport etc are beyond his purse. With
1500 per capita income one is hardly able to send his children to school. India in this
respect is too behind the world. Bottom 50 percent population is hardly able to send its
children to higher education, even if they are deserving and willing. Talent of poor may not
get opportunity to grow.Per capita income of people should have to increase.
S Swaminathan - I do not see how cheap labor is an asset. The costlier
labor gets, the more the laborer has a chance of leading a happy and
prosperous life, isn't it? A cheap labor force means we provide a cheap
sweatshop, so even if it leads to a big economy, it isn't a good factor
for us as Indians.
I would disagree with you on healthcare. From personal experience I can
say that the average Indian doctor is still less able and (in many cases
greedier) than his Western counterpart.
Let's analyse a few things to be immediately brought into our system for our real growth in the environment of competing economies around the world. If we look to verify whether our Constitution is really serving the intended purpose – that is, creating a responsible government and society and thereby collectively creating legitimate wealth and the same to be equitably distributed by applying effective tax system. Many would agree, our Constitution is just like a large old cloth with thousands of holes. Even the Constitutional name of India - "Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic of India" - is really confusing. When we say "Socialist" where is the question of including the word "Democratic"? When we say "Democratic" why do we need to include the word "Secular"? If the word “Republic” is included where is the necessity to include the words “Socialist”, “Secular” and “Democratic”. To improve our nation, as the first effort, the Constitution should allow the central governing authority to abolish all regional political parties, which are epicenter of corruptions and inefficiency in India. To make our society productive and vibrant, we must have a true and excellent education system that includes ethics and effective thinking process from childhood, instead of bookish examination system. Skills, innovations and capability to create wealth through efficiency and experience are to be recognized as national assets. Therefore, ‘quota raj’, which was created by vested political parties for vote grabbing intention should be immediately removed.
A country with 1.21 billion population is bound to achieve something,even when the polity of such a country does little to propel the growth.economic growth is different from economic development,we need the later.J.R.D Tata once said i want to see a happy India rather than a superpower India.
There is another measure of wealth known as Purchasing Power Parity. This measures what an unit of currency, say US$, can buy in different countries. My understanding is that one US $ can buy perhaps 8-10 $ worth of goods and services in India. By this measure, India's GDP should be still around 4th among nations. However, as the article states, there are a lot of people in India who are scraping by with meagre resources. The way out of this situation is to control family size and eradicate corruption, two tall orders.
I completely agree with Mr.S Swaminathan, the should have been with
reviewing all sides, but Manual labor, health aspects are largely
based quantity not quality, may be because of low income, and we are
ranked between two poorest African countries(low cost of labor,
health etc), despite growth.
To understand the paradox of great economy with low per capita income we should not forget the following points. With enormous population which is technically highly qualified in a country which is rich in most of the natural resources, to rank fourth in the economy speaks poor of the leadership and planning both in the economic and political sphere. If we divide the GDP into the huge population per capita will naturally be low. On the top of it corruption at national level and unfair trade and financial practices at the international level in this era of Globalization have their toll on the Golden Sparrow that was India.
Socialism per se has demonstrably failed. It has also been our experience that caste and religion based policies have created a large mass of parasites within the populace. It is about time that we put in place 'practical' policies that rewarded merit and competence, irrespective of caste, creed or gender; this does not mean let the economically challenged be left to die. Let there be mechanisms to support the economically weak through 'merit cum means' schemes. But let these not be unto perpetuity. The country needs investments (ergo people at all levels) in education, infrastructure, agriculture, security, health, maintenance ... . Should be (politically) relatively easy to create job opportunities; Create 'yojnas' to train people for these -- pay them a stipend and train them (emphasize on quality). Use them in these projects. Identify and ruthlessly sever programs that drain the exchequer. The new 'beneficiaries' will more than offset the lost vote bank, come election time.
It will be of great interest to know the isolated packets of country
which recorded accelerated growth. It will be seen that growth did
not occur in the poorest of the regions, if it had, poverty
reduction would have occurred much more rapidly. Southern states
where there is great political awareness, political leaders are
compelled to act alleviating poverty and hardship of the poorest.
Consequently there is better distribution PDS system, greater growth
and even distribution of income as against some of the big northern
states. UP for instance is a very large state with huge population
and lags behind in per capita income which is about 1/3 the national
average. These kind of regions could be seen affected by feudal mind
set, unable to take advantage of modern technology and
industrialization resulting in concentration of wealth by few at the
cost vast majority of poor.
Yes its very true
India will always shine because its poor citizens strive for excellence and work till their last. We love to save and invest our savings which can get us good return. We create capital and use it diligently. We do not use capital to meet our daily expenses. We keep our wealth in India to create jobs unlike our 'Rich and Powerful' who keep that in Swiss Banks to avoid our taxes. What will derail all this? Our Constitution which was framed 'by greats for greats' but all is hijacked by corrupt and rascals whose greed is never ending. We need to put few checks and balances else our democracy will remain in good books only.
Per-capita income cannot be compared across different countries. One can
get more out of 100 dollars in India when compared to European or
American countries. In India, manual labour, health care costs etc are
very cheap. The Hindu being one of the very few fairly-responsible
newpapers in India, needs to educate the people by giving complete
picture of statistics to its readers.
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