Dream of a Truly Prosperous India: A Long Road Ahead
So much achieved, so much yet to achieve.
Here comes 2025! Now that the New Year is here, the first quarter of the 21st century is nearing its end. The quarter century has been a period of enormous change in the world. Communication revolution and a more connected world, AI and drones, recession, pandemic, terrorism, and armed conflicts — just too many for a period of 25 years. The recent decades have also seen a massive rise in Indian economy. India’s economy is currently the fastest growing major economy in the world. In terms of GDP, India is the world’s fifth largest economy, after the US, China, Germany, and Japan. India is set to overtake Japan and Germany to emerge as the third largest economy in the coming years. India’s growth story has been phenomenal, and there is no doubt about it.
Now, let’s explore the flip side of the discussion, and consider some obvious questions. Has the rapid economic growth reached all Indians, who are now more than 140 crores? Has it benefitted each and every citizen? Lower middle-class individuals, construction workers, factory workers, landless agricultural laborers, housemaids, slum dwellers, roadside dwellers, rag pickers, not forgetting the tribal people living in remote areas — what do you think the tremendous GDP growth means to them? Does the explosive GDP growth make a big difference to their lives? Well, these are not simple yes-or-no questions, the answer is complicated; and we need to find answer beyond the simple yes and no.
What we need to understand first is the GDP. Of course, it’s the abbreviation of ‘Gross Domestic Product’. For now, let’s not go into the definition, let’s just look beyond it — if you want to measure the economic power of a country, GDP is a good place to start with. It’s a measure of how large an economy is. It’s a number that encapsulates all the market activity that occurs within a country, a number that tells the income of an entire national economy. GDP is useful for getting an idea of how the world’s economies rank in terms of size, like India ranks fifth in size. But, that ranking does not tell the whole story, or rather, that tells only part of the story.
We may be tempted to treat higher level of GDP as an index of greater well-being of the people, but there are reasons why this may not be correct. GDP focuses on the market economy, which means it ignores non-market issues, like unpaid household labor or damage to the society & environment. It doesn’t tell us anything about the distribution of economic power, i.e. the gap between rich and poor. So, there is no necessary connection between GDP and real social welfare.
What we need to do is think beyond GDP, and look beyond the world ranking in terms of size of the economy. What matters is not just growth, but inclusive growth, i.e. improvements in living standards for the population at large, for all people living in this country. What we need to ensure is whether the economic policies we make improve the lives of socio-economically deprived people. Only when each & every citizen is economically empowered, India will become a truly prosperous nation, a truly developed country. No doubt, we’ve achieved so much, and we are incredibly proud, but there is much more to do.
Shubhra Atreya
Content Writer
IT Department
SVSU, Meerut
