INDIAN ECONOMY ― INTRODUCTION

FEATURES OF INDIAN ECONOMY

-Hemant Yadav

Nobel prize winner Sir Arthur Lewis said'economic development is always and everywhere about getting people out of agriculture and of agriculture becoming overtime a less important part of the economy.

In the contest of India this transition is still along way ahead, various indicators show that India is an underdeveloped country some of its basic features are as follow.

1) Low per capita Income

● India ranks at 123 position when it comes to per capita Income at PPP.

● The real per capita income is one of the  important indicator representing the           welfare of people of a country.

●According to economic survey it is expected to stand at the level of ₹8660 in the year 2017-18.

2) Occupational pattern

● Occupational distribution of population in India is not at all satisfying and clearly reflects the backwardness of the economy.

● In 1951 72.1% of the working population was engaged in agriculture sector and according to agriculture census the same proportion is still more than 60% in 2015-16.

3) Scarcity of capital

● India's unprecedented climb to historic high level of income and saving grades in the mid 2000 as been followed by pronounced gradual decline. This current episode of investment and saving slowdown is still ongoing. It is deterimental to growth of the economic 

● India's slow down is unusual in that it is moderate in magnitude and long in duration and started from a relatively high peak of 36% GDP.

● It has a specific in nature in the sense that it is a balance sheet related situation/slow down, in other words many companies have to curtail their investment because their finances have stressed as the investment they undertook during the boom have not generated enough revenue to allow them to service the debts that they have in curre.

4) Low level of Human Development

● Investment in human capital is a pre-requisite for a healthy and productive population for nation building being a developing economy there is not enough fiscal space to increase the expenditure on critical social infrastructure like education and health.

● India ranks 131 out of 188 countries in HDI with the score of 0.624.

5) Population

● A son "meta" preference that is parents may choose to keep having children until they get the desired number of son which is very much responsible for the growth of population in our country. The population of India over these years has increased roughly at the rate of 2.1% per annum.

6) Widespread unemployment

● Widespread unemployment perhaps the most striking symptoms of inadequate development in India the unemployment trade in country will stand 3.5% in 2018-19 as per ILO ''World Employment and Social Outlook Trends" despite the being the fastest economy the country is witnessing jobless growth.

7) Poverty

● According to World Bank Brooking Institute India is home to about 11.1% of extreme poor in the world. Although this figure is reducing but it is still painful.

8) Inequitable distribution of Income

●Income inequality reach historically high level in India, since 1980s. In year 2016-17  1 billionaire were created every two days this biggest increase in number of billionaire. 

● 82% of all wealth generated between the second quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2017 went to the top 1% according to latest survey 'Oxfam'. India is no stranger to income inequality but the gap is widening further.

9) Technological backwardness

● Science, technology and innovation are key drivers of economic performance and social development. India needs to transit from net consumer to net producer of knowledge. India spends only 0.6% of GDP on research and development well below the U.S 2.8%, China 2.1%, Israel 4.3% and korea 4.2%.

● In most developed country the private sector carries out the bulk of research and development even if government must play an important role however in India the government is not only primary source in research and development funding but also the primary users of these funds.