|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
India: Perspectives on Equitable Development THE book is a collection of 18 research papers presented by eminent scholars at an international conference organised by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad. It starts with the keynote address by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wherein he suggests promoting labour-intensive development, power sector reforms and increased role of state governments in determining the economic agenda.
T. Palanivel argues in his paper that trade liberalisation in the Asia-Pacific region has indeed been associated with higher export and import growth, increased ratios of trade to GDP and diversification of exports towards manufactured items and commercial services. The employment elasticity in most of the Asian countries is generally low (below 0.40), which implies that a one-percentage point in the GDP lead only less than 0.4 per cent in employment generation which implies higher labour productivity with a disadvantageous position to human development. He says that agriculture is no longer a refuge sector for those unable to find a job elsewhere rather the service sector seems to have emerged as the refuse sector in the region. Manoj Panda illustrates how urban-rural disparities as well as inter-state disparities have aggravated during the period of economic reforms. Mahendra Dev et al in their paper, The Outreach and Effectiveness of Safety Net Programmes in India, examine the efficiency, awareness, participation, targeting and distributive outcome of safety net programmes in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka and observed substantial variations across states in terms of these indicators. Among all the risks, sudden health problem dominates as the principal risk for all quartiles and the irony is that the prevailing safety net programmes do not seem to address this most dominant pervasive risk for poor households. Errol D’Souza in his paper on public investment and infrastructure points out that in India, increased allocation to transfers and public sector wages reduces the allocation of public investment and at the same time, continued corruption reduces the effectiveness and productivity of public spending. Jaiprakash Narayan lists the impediments to health sector though he misses on the impact of the ongoing national rural health mission, the flagship programme of the UPA government. Similarly, JBG Tilak points out the level of economic development need not be related directly to the public spending on education since an economically backward state can also spend more resources on education. GK Chadha explores the linkages between agriculture and industry through village and small industries, unorganised agro-based industries and with the gross value added in individual food processing sub-sectors. B Goldar and R Banga points out that the trade associated with cross-border vertical integration did have a favourable effect on foreign direct investment. Nagesh Kumar shows how FDI inflows in India are still low as compared to some of the other economies in the region. The book can be useful to all those who are interested in understanding economic growth with equitable development.
|
||
|
|
||
C. Rangarajan in his
paper argues that enhanced human development expenditure without
accelerated economic growth is unsustainable over a long period. He
suggests creation of more grass-roots organisations and getting more,
both quantitatively and qualitatively, from the resources spent. D.M.
Nachane in his informative paper talks about the theoretical impact of
financial liberalisation in India examining some important issues such
as cross-border capital flows, national economic exposure, money
laundering, ODA (official development assistance) and global
environment which includes financial regulatory systems and official
accountability and management of international financial crisis.