Business Government and Society - India’s Economic Liberalization in 1991

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WEEK 4 ASSIGNMENT

Business, Government and Society

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Group 7 Section D

1711229                ANAND LANJEWAR

1711234                ARNAB CHAKRABORTY

1711235                ARPITA HALDER

1711236                ARSHDEEP SINGH

1711237                ARUNJYOTI DAS        

Growth cannot happen without infrastructure. Does that mean growth cannot be inclusive of agriculture? Discuss using the two cases on agriculture technology and DMIC in your case handbook.

India’s economic liberalization in 1991 led to the broadening of its horizon as a nation. No longer did it remain closed and enigmatic to the outside world but entered a phase of significant growth and development. Barring the recent phases that included demonetization and the introduction of GST, India’s economy has been growing at a commendable rate of approximately 7% per annum. However, digging further into the mentioned piece of statistic, it may be observed that the agricultural sector is growing at a pace of just 3% per annum. This paltry figure, coupled with almost 70% of the Indian population depending on agriculture, results in huge rural-urban income disparity. Hence the need for agriculture to grow faster for a more inclusive growth.

This brings us to the prevailing discussion on whether growth may be exclusive of agriculture. The authors’ opinions are resoundingly skewed towards a more inclusive form of growth. Infrastructure provides the basic backbone for an economy to grow, and that is generally not up for debate. But agricultural growth needs to be commensurate with the same, for multiple reasons. For such a massively populated country as India is, with 22% of its population living below the designated poverty line, ensuring food availability itself is a major issue. Hence, there is not much room for compromise in this regard. Wide socio-economic disparities exist between different working classes of the population on account of their occupation. With almost 70% of the labour force engaged in the agricultural sector, growth can only take place if the sector is not neglected.

Food shortage, in simple terms, leads to a country being a net importer of agricultural produce. One does not to understand Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to establish the fact that unless the population is well fed, every other kind of growth becomes inconsequential. Hence, net imports would diminish the GDP of the country. Simple economic sense would push any policymaker to provide due importance on agriculture. It should be understood that an increase in agricultural production and the subsequent rise in the income of the agrarian community, together with infrastructural growth, lead to an increasing demand for industrial production. Unless there is a lack of demand, infrastructural growth suffers from mass underutilization.

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