India’s Growth Story … Is India really shining?

In Human Development Index (HDI), which looks beyond GDP to a broader definition of well-being, India ranks 134 among 187 countries. We rank below Nations like Bolivia, Guatemala, El Salvador which saw civil wars and are often deemed as poorest nations. Nation like Cuba which has zero billionaires, a nation which has faced a huge economic blockade since its birth, ranks 73 places ahead of us at 51. None of these nations have an annual average GDP growth of 7.9%. None of these nations aspire to be economic super power. None of these nations have human resource with technical and scientific capabilities like ours. In short, even nations much poorer than us have done a lot better than we have.

48% of India's children under the age of 5 are chronically malnourished due to poor diet and lack of nutrients in their food. We are home to the largest number of malnourished children in the world. India stands 67th out of 81 countries ranked in the Global Hunger Index. Our figure of Children malnourishment makes figures of sub-Saharan Africa look good.

At the time India got its Constitution, over 45% of people were officially below poverty line. According to latest poverty estimates, the proportion of people below poverty line are down to 37% (Taking estimate of Tendulkar committee, Arjun Sen Gupta committee suggested this figure to be 77%) , whereas, Gross domestic product (GDP) has quantum-leaped by over 500 times in the same period. Yes I agree that our nation has prospered in recent times but that prosperity has been limited to only few. The thing which has grown fasted in last 20 years is not IT but inequality.

I think it's time we start thinking about development and not mere growth. So often we use these worlds interchangeably. Growth is quantitative, whereas development is qualitative in nature. Growth is just ‘getting bigger’, whereas development is improvement. Do we really want to be a nation where 70% of population doesn’t matter? If we don’t start addressing this issue seriously then we run risk of political instability because political equality is unsustainable without social and economic inequalities. The spread of Naxalism is an indication of this phenomenon.

Note: - HDI was devised with collaborative effort of Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian economist Amartya Sen.