Economic development in India
[1] The Indian economy is still performing well, with foreign investment and looser regulations driving significant growth in the country.
[1] IMF says that if India pushed more fundamental market reforms, it could sustain the rate and even reach the government's 2011 target of 10%.
The average annual growth rates (2007–12) for Gujarat (13.86%), Uttarakhand (13.66%), Bihar (10.15%) or Jharkhand (9.85%) were higher than for West Bengal (6.24%), Maharashtra (7.84%), Odisha (7.05%), Punjab (11.78%) or Assam (5.88%).
[citation needed] It is argued that the pattern of Indian development has been a specific one and that the country may be able to skip the intermediate industrialisation-led phase in the transformation of its economic structure.
As economic reforms picked up pace, India's GDP grew five-fold to reach US$2.2 trillion in 2015 (as per IMF estimates).
India's GDP growth during January–March period of 2015 was at 7.5% compared to China's 7%, making it the fastest growing MAJOR economy.
Post-Independence, Jawaharal Nehru demonstrated his willingness to compromise socialism for the perceived benefit of the country to provide financial incentives for the expansion of private enterprise.
[citation needed] However, after the crisis of 1957, India turned towards import substitution industrialization and introduced foreign exchange.
[citation needed] The Nehru-Mahalanobis approach, often referred to as the Second Five Year Plan, emphasized the development of basic and heavy industries as a means of accelerating economic growth.
It is argued that the misbalanced weightage towards the machine-making sector contributed to the increase in food-grain prices and thus, perpetuated poverty and malnutrition.
[citation needed] India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper.
Major clusters of manufacturing are mainly concentrated in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh due to relatively better infrastructure and quality of labor force.
Manufacturing sector in addition to mining, quarrying, electricity and gas together account for 27.6% of the GDP and employ 17% of the total workforce.
India has emerged as the second largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world with smartphone exports exceeding $10 billion in FY 2022–23.
Post-liberalisation, the Indian private sector, which was usually run by oligopolies of old family firms and required political connections to prosper was faced with foreign competition, including the threat of cheaper Chinese imports.
[21] Under the Modi Government, various initiatives are taking place like Make In India campaign, to boost the Indian industries.
[22] During the Internet bubble that led up to 2000, heavy investments in undersea fibre-optic cables linked Asia with the rest of the world.
The fall that followed the economic boom resulted in the auction of cheap fiber optic cables at one-tenth of their original price.
All of these investments and events, not to mention a swell of available talent, resulted in India becoming almost overnight the centre for outsourcing of Business process.
[29] India ranked 63 on the Ease of Doing Business Index in 2020, compared with 108 for Pakistan, 31 for People's Republic of China, 131 for Nigeria, 124 for Brazil, and 73 for Indonesia.
A 2005 study by Transparency International (TI) India found that more than half of those surveyed had firsthand experience of paying a bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office.
[32] The chief economic consequences of corruption are the loss to the exchequer, an unhealthy climate for investment and an increase in the cost of government-subsidised services.
[32] India still ranks in the bottom quartile of developing nations in terms of the ease of doing business, and compared with China, the average time taken to secure the clearances for a startup or to invoke bankruptcy is much greater.
[36] India's labour regulations are heavy even by developing country standards and analysts have urged the government to abolish them.
The Indian government is implementing the world's largest child labour elimination program, with primary education targeted for ~250 million.
Special investigation cells have been set up in states to enforce existing laws banning employment of children (under 14) in hazardous industries.
[39][non-primary source needed] About 1.2 billion people in developing nations lack clean, safe water because most household and industrial wastes are dumped directly into rivers and lakes without treatment.
Globally, but especially in developing nations like India where people cook with fuelwood and coal over open fires, about 4 billion humans suffer continuous exposure to smoke.
[43] Changes in ecosystem biological diversity, evolution of parasites, and invasion by exotic species all frequently result in disease outbreaks such as cholera which emerged in 1992 in India.
In 1985 the Ministry of Human Resource Development was founded to improve female literacy rates, and to support women looking to join the work force.
