9% Growth Trajectory- For Whom & How Long?

Economic Growth vs. Economic Development

The Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is reported to have said that difficult decisions were needed to revert to 9 % Growth Trajectory as the path ahead is not easy. The Prime Minister and the Planning Commission seem to be obsessed with the “Economic Growth Trajectory”, which is only one aspect of the process of “Economic Development” as economist Amartya Sen pointed out. The Economic growth, which is a phenomenon of market productivity & rise in GDP, does not necessarily mean Economic development.

They seem to pay only a lip-sympathy to “Economic Development”, which needs the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers to promote the standard of living, the economic, political, and social well-being of the people, with environmental sustainability, social inclusion, health, safety, literacy, and other initiatives.

Ground Realities

The data from the Census 2011 holds a mirror to the conditions under which many households live under thatched roofs, without access to safe drinking water, electricity, sanitation (toilets) etc. and also reflects the success or failure of several government programmes over the last two decades, in spite of high economic growth trajectory being claimed.

The Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia admitted that inequality increased in the income distribution in both rural and urban areas, which itself goes against “Social Inclusion’- the objective of economic development.

It also goes against ‘Directive Principles of State Policy’ of The Constitution of India- Article 39 ( c )- for securing that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment.

World Bank inspired Growth Model

Our policy makers, over the last two decades, influenced by the World Bank culture, seem to be advocating the Economic Growth based on US model, centered on Oil, Automobiles, Malls, Consumerism, and Nuclear Power, unmindful of their impending adverse impacts. Even US, with all its economic and military might, having access to the natural resources all over the world till recently, is finding difficult to pursue.

How can India, with the population 4 times that of USA and having only one third of its territorial extension, blindly pursue the US life-styles and practices?. It will be too late and too expensive, to realize and act upon to clear the mess created, once the disaster of unsustainable natural resource depletion and the environmental pollution hits us with the speed and magnitude of which we are not fully aware.

What India needs is Sustainable Development, with industrial process that minimizes both inputs of energy and materials and output of waste products and pollutants and with emphasis on resource efficiency.

The cheap and abundant supply of products and services encourages wasteful usage of resources. The conspicuous consumerism depicting vulgar display of wealth, needs to be curbed, even if it means modest growth trajectory, as long as it promotes the economic, political, and social well-being of the common people, with environmental sustainability and social inclusion.

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