Indian Economy: A Brief Overview
(This study material was prepared for BJMC-II students by Ms. Shilpi Jha & Dr. C P Singh.Source: Wikipedia, March 2010)
Introduction
The economy of India is the twelfth largest economy in the world by nominal value and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).In the 1990s, following economic reform from the socialist-inspired economy of post-independence India, the country began to experience rapid economic growth, as markets opened for international competition and investment. In the 21st century, India is an emerging economic power with vast human and natural resources, and a huge knowledge base. Economists predict that by 2020. India will be among the leading economies of the world.
India was under social democratic-based policies from 1947 to 1991. The economy was characterised by extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to pervasive corruption and slow growth.. Since 1991, continuing economic liberalisation has moved the economy towards a market-based system. A revival of economic reforms and better economic policy in 2000s accelerated India's economic growth rate. By 2008, India had established itself as the world's second-fastest growing major economy.However, the year 2009 saw a significant slowdown in India's official GDP growth rate to 6.1% as well as the return of a large projected fiscal deficit of 10.3% of GDP which would be among the highest in the world.
India's large service industry accounts for 62.6% of the country's GDP while the industrial and agricultural sector contribute 20% and 17.5% respectively. Agriculture is the predominant occupation in India, accounting for about 52% of employment. The service sector makes up a further 34%, and industrial sector around 14%.The labor force totals half a billion workers. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes, cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry and fish. Major industries include telecommunications, textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, information technology enabled services and software.
India's per capita income (nominal) is Rs.46440, ranked 139th in the world, while its per capita (PPP) of Rs. 131940/- is ranked 128th. Previously a closed economy, India's trade has grown fast. India currently accounts for 1.5% of World trade as of 2007 according to the WTO. According to the World Trade Statistics of the WTO in 2006, India's total merchandise trade (counting exports and imports) was valued at Rs. 13230/- billion in 2006 and India's services trade inclusive of export and import was Rs. 6435 billion. Thus, India's global economic engagement in 2006 covering both merchandise and services trade was of the order of Rs. 19665 billion, up by a record 72% from a level of Rs. 11385 billion in 2004. India's trade has reached a still relatively moderate share 24% of GDP in 2006, up from 6% in 1985.
Despite robust economic growth, India continues to face many major problems. The recent economic development has widened the economic inequality across the country. Despite sustained high economic growth rate, approximately 80% of its population lives on less than Rs.90 a day (PPP). Even though the arrival of Green Revolution brought end to famines in India, 40% of children under the age of three are underweight and a third of all men and women suffer from chronic energy deficiency
Features of Indian Economy
Structural features of Indian economy imply structure of the economy which is as following:
(a) Mixed economy: It is a mixture of private and public enterprises
(b) Dual economy: There is traditional agriculture and modern industries
(c) Agrarian economy: prominence of agriculture in the economy both as a contributor to the GDP as well as to the generation of employment.
An estimate by Cambridge University historian Angus Maddison reveals that "India's share of the world income fell from 22.6% in 1700, comparable to Europe's share of 23.3%, to a low of 3.8% in 1952
From 1947 to 1991
Indian economic policy after independence was influenced by the colonial experience. Five year plans in India resembled central planning in the Soviet Union. Steel, mining, machine tools, water, telecommunications, insurance, and electrical plants, among other industries, were effectively nationalized in the mid-1950s. Elaborate licenses, regulations and the accompanying red tape, commonly referred to as License Raj were required to set up business in India between 1947 and 1990
Since 1991
In the late 80s, the government led by Rajiv Gandhi eased restrictions on capacity expansion for incumbents, removed price controls and reduced corporate taxes. While this increased the rate of growth, it also led to high fiscal deficits and a worsening current account. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which was India's major trading partner, and the first Gulf War, which caused a spike in oil prices, caused a major balance-of-payments crisis for India, which found it facing the prospect of defaulting on its loans. India asked for a $1.8 billion bailout loan from IMF, which in return demanded reforms.
In response, Prime Minister Narsimha Rao along with his finance minister Manmohan Singh initiated the economic liberalization of 1991. The reforms did away with the License Raj (investment, industrial and import licensing) and ended many public monopolies, allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment in many sectors. Since then, the overall direction of liberalization has remained the same, irrespective of the ruling party, although no party has tried to take on powerful lobbies such as the trade unions and farmers, or contentious issues such as reforming Labour laws and reducing agricultural subsidies.
Since 1990 India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the developing world; during this period, the economy has grown constantly, but with a few major setbacks. This has been accompanied by increases in life expectancy, literacy rates and food security.
Agriculture
India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2007, employed 60% of the total workforce and despite a steady decline of its share in the GDP, is still the largest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development of India. Yields per unit area of all crops have grown since 1950, due to the special emphasis placed on agriculture in the five-year plans and steady improvements in irrigation, technology, application of modern agricultural practices and provision of agricultural credit and subsidies since Green revolution in India. However, international comparisons reveal the average yield in India is generally 30% to 50% of the highest average yield in the world.
India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper
It also has the world's largest cattle population: 193 million. It is the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, wheat, cotton, silk, peanut and inland fish. It is the third largest producer of tobacco. India is the largest fruit producer, accounting for 10% of the world fruit production. It is the leading producer of bananas, sapotas and mangoes.
India is the second largest producer and the largest consumer of silk in the world, with the majority of the 77 million kg (2005) production taking place in Karnataka State, particularly in Mysore and the North Bangalore regions of Muddenahalli, Kanivenarayanpura and Doddaballapura the upcoming sites of a INR 700 million "Silk City"
INDUSTRY AND SERVICES
Industry accounts for 20% of the GDP and employ 17% of the total workforce. However, about one-third of the industrial Labour force is engaged in simple household manufacturing only. In absolute terms, India is 16th in the world in terms of nominal factory output. India's small industry makes up 5% of carbon dioxide emissions in the world.
Economic reforms brought foreign competition, led to privatization of certain public sector industries, opened up sectors hitherto reserved for the public sector and led to an expansion in the production of fast-moving consumer goods. Post-liberalization, 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. It has since handled the change by squeezing costs, revamping management, focusing on designing new products and relying on low Labour costs and technology.
Textile manufacturing is the second largest source for employment after agriculture and accounts for 26% of manufacturing output. Tirupur has gained universal recognition as the leading source of hosiery, knitted garments, casual wear and sportswear.Dharavi slum in Mumbai has gained fame for leather products. Tata Motors’ Nano attempts to be the world's cheapest car.
India is 15th in services output. It provides employment to 34% of work force, and it is growing fast. It has the largest share in the GDP, accounting for 62.6% up from 15% in 1950.
Business services (information technology, information technology enabled services, business process outsourcing) are among the fastest growing sectors contributing to one third of the total output of services in 2000. The growth in the IT sector is attributed to increased specialization, and an availability of a large pool of low cost, but highly skilled, educated and fluent English-speaking workers, on the supply side, matched on the demand side by an increased demand from foreign consumers interested in India's service exports, or those looking to outsource their operations. The share of India’s IT industry to the country's GDP increased from 4.8 % in 2005-06 to 7% in 2008. In 2009, seven Indian firms were listed among the top 15 technology outsourcing companies in the world. In March 2009, annual revenues from outsourcing operations in India amounted to US$60 billion and this is expected to increase to US$225 billion by 2020.
Organized retail such supermarkets accounts for 24% of the market as of 2008. Regulations prevent most foreign investment in retailing. Moreover, over thirty regulations such as "signboard licenses" and "anti-hoarding measures" may have to be complied before a store can open doors. There are taxes for moving goods to states, from states, and even within states. Tourism in India is relatively undeveloped, but growing at double digits. Some hospitals woo medical tourism.
Banking and finance
The Indian money market is classified into: the organsized sector (comprising private, public and foreign owned commercial banks and cooperative banks, together known as scheduled banks); and the unorganized sector (comprising individual or family owned indigenous bankers or money lenders and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs)). The unorganized sector and micro credit are still preferred over traditional banks in rural and sub-urban areas, especially for non-productive purposes, like ceremonies and short duration loans.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi nationalised 14 banks in 1969, followed by six others in 1980, and made it mandatory for banks to provide 40% of their net credit to priority sectors like agriculture, small-scale industry, retail trade, small businesses, etc. to ensure that the banks fulfill their social and developmental goals. Since then, the number of bank branches has increased from 10,120 in 1969 to 98,910 in 2003 and the population covered by a branch decreased from 63,800 to 15,000 during the same period. The total deposits increased 32.6 times between 1971 to 1991 compared to 7 times between 1951 and 971. Despite an increase of rural branches, from 1,860 or 22% of the total number of branches in 1969 to 32,270 or 48%, only 32,270 out of 5 lakh (500,000) villages are covered by a scheduled bank.
The public sector banks hold over 75% of total assets of the banking industry, with the private and foreign banks holding 18.2% and 6.5% respectively.[90] Since liberalization, the government has approved significant banking reforms. While some of these relate to nationalised banks (like encouraging mergers, reducing government interference and increasing profitability and competitiveness), other reforms have opened up the banking and insurance sectors to private and foreign players. More than half of personal savings are invested in physical assets such as land, houses, cattle and gold.
NATURAL RESOURCES
India's total cultivable area is 1,269,219 km² (56.78% of total land area), which is decreasing due to constant pressure from an ever growing population and increased urbanization. India has a total water surface area of 314,400 km² and receives an average annual rainfall of 1,100 mm. Irrigation accounts for 92% of the water utilization, and comprised 380 km² in 1974, and is expected to rise to 1,050 km² by 2025, with the balance accounted for by industrial and domestic consumers. India's inland water resources comprising rivers, canals, ponds and lakes and marine resources comprising the east and west coasts of the Indian Ocean and other gulfs and bays provide employment to nearly 6 million people in the fisheries sector. In 2008, India had the world's third largest fishing industry.
India's major mineral resources include coal, iron, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium, chromites, limestone and thorium. India meets most of its domestic energy demand through its 92 billion tones of coal reserves (about 10% of world's coal reserves).
India's huge thorium reserves — about 25% of world's reserves — is expected to fuel the country's ambitious nuclear energy program in the long-run. India's dwindling uranium reserves stagnated the growth of nuclear energy in the country for many years. However, the Indo-US nuclear deal has paved the way for India to import uranium from other countries. India is also believed to be rich in certain renewable sources of energy with significant future potential such as solar, wind and biofuels (jatropha, sugarcane).
Petroleum and Natural gas
India's oil reserves, found in Bombay High, parts of Gujarat, Rjasthan and Eastern Assam, meet 25% of the country's domestic oil demand. India's total proven oil reserves stand at 11 billion barrels, of which Bombay High is believed to hold 6.1 billion barrels and Mangala Area in Rajasthan, an additional 3.6 billion barrels.
In 2009, India imported 2.56 million barrels of oil per day, making it one of largest buyers of crude oil in the world. The petroleum industry in India mostly consists of public sector companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL). There are some major private Indian companies in oil sector such as Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) which operates the world's largest oil refining complex.
Pharmaceuticals
India has a self reliant Pharmaceuticals industry. The majority of its medical consumables are produced domestically. Pharmaceutical Industry in India is dotted with companies like Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla which have created a niche for themselves at world level.
Today, India is an exporter of countries like United States and Russia. In terms of the global market, India currently holds a modest 1-2% share, but it has been growing at approximately 10% per year. Indian Pharmaceutical Industry is often compared to Pharmaceutical Industry in the USA.
External trade and investment
India's economy is mostly dependent on its large internal market with external trade accounting for just 20% of the country's GDP. In 2008, India accounted for 1.45% of global merchandise trade and 2.8% of global commercial services export. Until the liberalization of 1991, India was largely and intentionally isolated from the world markets, to protect its economy and to achieve self-reliance.
India's exports were stagnant for the first 15 years after independence, due to the predominance of tea, jute and cotton manufactures, demand for which was generally inelastic. Imports in the same period consisted predominantly of machinery, equipment and raw materials, due to nascent industrialization.
Since liberalization, the value of India's international trade has become more broad-based and has risen to Rs. 63,080,109 crore in 2003–04 from Rs.1, 250 crore in 1950–51. India's major trading partners are China, the US, the UAE, the UK, Japan and the EU. The exports during April 2007 were $12.31 billion up by 16% and import were $17.68 billion with an increase of 18.06% over the previous year. In 2006-07, major export commodities included engineering goods, petroleum products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, textiles and garments, agricultural products, iron ore and other minerals. Major import commodities included crude oil and related products, machinery, electronic goods, gold and silver.
India is a founding-member of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) since 1947 and its successor, the WTO. While participating actively in its general council meetings, India has been crucial in voicing the concerns of the developing world. For instance, India has continued its opposition to the inclusion of such matters as Labour and environment issues and other non-tariff barriers into the WTO policies.
Income and consumption
• 77.7% of the population lives on less than $2.50 (PPP) a day, down from 92.5% in 1981. This compares with 80.5% in.
• 65.6% of the population lives on less than $2 a day (PPP), which is around 20 rupees or $0.5 a day in nominal terms. It was down from 86.6% and compares with 73.0% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• 24.3% of the population earned less than $1 (PPP, around $0.25 in nominal terms) a day in 2005, down from 42.1% in 1981.
• 41.6% of its population is living below the new international poverty line of $1.25 (PPP) per day, down from 59.8% in 1981. The World Bank further estimates that a third of the global poor now reside in India.
Today, more people can afford a bicycle than ever before. Some 40% of Indian households owns a bicycle, with ownership rates ranging from around 30% to 70% at state level. Housing is modest. According to Times of India, "a majority of Indians have per capita space equivalent to or less than a 10 feet x 10 feet room for their living, sleeping, cooking, washing and toilet needs." and "one in every three urban Indians lives in homes too cramped to exceed even the minimum requirements of a prison cell in the US." The average is 103 sq ft (9.6 m2) per person in rural areas and 117 sq ft (10.9 m2) per person in urban areas.
Around half of Indian children are malnourished. While poverty in India has reduced significantly, official figures estimate that 27.5% of Indians still lived below the national poverty line of $1 (PPP, around 10 rupees in nominal terms) a day in 2004-2005. A 2007 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) found that 65% of Indians, or 750 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees per day with most working in "informal Labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty."
Since the early 1950s, successive governments have implemented various schemes, under planning, to alleviate poverty that have met with partial success. All these programmes have relied upon the strategies of the Food for work programme and National Rural Employment Programme of the 1980s, which attempted to use the unemployed to generate productive assets and build rural infrastructure. In August 2005, the Indian parliament passed the Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, the largest programme of this type in terms of cost and coverage, which promises 100 days of minimum wage employment to every rural household in all the India’s 600 districts. The question of whether economic reforms have reduced poverty or not has fuelled debates without generating any clear cut answers and has also put political pressure on further economic reforms, especially those involving the downsizing of Labour and cutting agricultural subsidies.
Employment
Agricultural and allied sectors accounted for about 60% of the total workforce in 2003 same as in 1993–94. While agriculture has faced stagnation in growth, services have seen a steady growth. Of the total workforce, 8% is in the organized sector, two-thirds of which are in the public sector. The NSSO survey estimated that in 1999–2000, 106 million, nearly 10% of the population were unemployed and the overall unemployment rate was 7.3%, with rural areas doing marginally better (7.2%) than urban areas (7.7%). India's labor force is growing by 2.5% annually, but employment only at 2.3% a year.
Official unemployment exceeds 9%. Regulation and other obstacles have discouraged the emergence of formal businesses and jobs. Almost 30% of workers are casual workers who work only when they are able to get jobs and remain unpaid for the rest of the time. Only 10% of the workforce is in regular employment. India's labor regulations are heavy even by developing country standards and analysts have urged the government to abolish them.
Unemployment in India is characterized by chronic underemployment or disguised unemployment. Government schemes that target eradication of both poverty and unemployment (which in recent decades has sent millions of poor and unskilled people into urban areas in search of livelihoods) attempt to solve the problem, by providing financial assistance for setting up businesses, skill honing, setting up public sector enterprises, reservations in governments, etc. The decreased role of the public sector after liberalization has further underlined the need for focusing on better education and has also put political pressure on further reforms.
Child labor is a complex problem that is basically rooted in poverty. The Indian government is implementing the world's largest child labor elimination program, with primary education targeted for ~250 million. Numerous non-governmental and voluntary organizations are also involved. Special investigation cells have been set up in states to enforce existing laws banning employment of children (under 14) in hazardous industries. The allocation of the Government of India for the eradication of child labor was $10 million in 1995-96 and $16 million in 1996-97. The allocation for 2007 was $21 million. In 2006, remittances from Indian migrants overseas made up $27 billion or about 3% of India's GDP.
Issues
Agriculture
The low productivity in India is a result of the following factors:
• According to "India: Priorities for Agriculture and Rural Development" by World Bank, India's large agricultural subsidies are hampering productivity-enhancing investment. Overregulation of agriculture has increased costs, price risks and uncertainty. Government interventions in labor, land, and credit markets are hurting the market. Infrastructure and services are inadequate.
• Illiteracy, slow progress in implementing land reforms and inadequate or inefficient finance and marketing services for farm produce.
• The average size of land holdings is very small (less than 20,000 m²) and is subject to fragmentation, due to land ceiling acts and in some cases, family disputes. Such small holdings are often over-manned, resulting in disguised unemployment and low productivity of Labour.
• Adoption of modern agricultural practices and use of technology is inadequate, hampered by ignorance of such practices, high costs and impracticality in the case of small land holdings.
• World Bank says that the allocation of water is inefficient, unsustainable and inequitable. The irrigation infrastructure is deteriorating. Irrigation facilities are inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 52.6% of the land was irrigated in 2003–04, which result in farmers still being dependent on rainfall, specifically the Monsoon season. A good monsoon results in a robust growth for the economy as a whole, while a poor monsoon leads to a sluggish growth. Farm credit is regulated by NABARD, which is the statutory apex agent for rural development in the subcontinent.
India has many farm insurance companies that insure wheat, fruit, and rice and rubber farmers in the event of natural disasters or catastrophic crop failure, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture. One notable company that provides all of these insurance policies is Agriculture Insurance Company of India and it alone insures almost 20 million farmers.
India's population is growing faster than its ability to produce rice and wheat. The most important structural reform for self-sufficiency is the ITC Limited plan to connect 20,000 villages to the Internet by 2013. This will provide farmers with up to date crop prices for the first time, which should minimize losses incurred from neighboring producers selling early and in turn facilitate investment in rural areas.
Corruption
Corruption has been one of the pervasive problems affecting India. The economic reforms of 1991 reduced the red-tape , bureaucracy and the License Raj that had strangled private enterprise. Yet, a 2005 study by Transparency International (TI) India found that more than half of those surveyed had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office.
The Right to Information Act (2005) and equivalent acts in the Indian states that require government officials to furnish information requested by citizens or face punitive action, computerization of services and various central and state government acts that established vigilance commissions have considerably reduced corruption or at least have opened up avenues to redress grievances. The 2009 report by Transparency International ranks India at 84th place and states that significant improvements were made by India in reducing corruption.
Education
India has made huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. The right to education at elementary level has been made one of the fundamental rights under the Eighty-Sixth Amendment of 2002. However, education is still far behind developing countries such as China and continues to face challenges. Despite growing investment in education, 40% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of the students reach high school. An optimistic estimate is that only one in five job-seekers in India has ever had any sort of vocational training.
Infrastructure
Development of infrastructure was completely in the hands of the public sector and was plagued by corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, urban-bias and an inability to scale investment. India's low spending on power, construction, transportation, and telecommunications and, at $31 billion or 6% of GDP in 2002 had prevented India from sustaining higher growth rates. This has prompted the government to partially open up infrastructure to the private sector allowing foreign investment which has helped in a sustained growth rate of close to 9% for the past six quarters.
Introduction
The economy of India is the twelfth largest economy in the world by nominal value and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).In the 1990s, following economic reform from the socialist-inspired economy of post-independence India, the country began to experience rapid economic growth, as markets opened for international competition and investment. In the 21st century, India is an emerging economic power with vast human and natural resources, and a huge knowledge base. Economists predict that by 2020. India will be among the leading economies of the world.
India was under social democratic-based policies from 1947 to 1991. The economy was characterised by extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to pervasive corruption and slow growth.. Since 1991, continuing economic liberalisation has moved the economy towards a market-based system. A revival of economic reforms and better economic policy in 2000s accelerated India's economic growth rate. By 2008, India had established itself as the world's second-fastest growing major economy.However, the year 2009 saw a significant slowdown in India's official GDP growth rate to 6.1% as well as the return of a large projected fiscal deficit of 10.3% of GDP which would be among the highest in the world.
India's large service industry accounts for 62.6% of the country's GDP while the industrial and agricultural sector contribute 20% and 17.5% respectively. Agriculture is the predominant occupation in India, accounting for about 52% of employment. The service sector makes up a further 34%, and industrial sector around 14%.The labor force totals half a billion workers. Major agricultural products include rice, wheat, oilseed, cotton, jute, tea, sugarcane, potatoes, cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goats, poultry and fish. Major industries include telecommunications, textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, information technology enabled services and software.
India's per capita income (nominal) is Rs.46440, ranked 139th in the world, while its per capita (PPP) of Rs. 131940/- is ranked 128th. Previously a closed economy, India's trade has grown fast. India currently accounts for 1.5% of World trade as of 2007 according to the WTO. According to the World Trade Statistics of the WTO in 2006, India's total merchandise trade (counting exports and imports) was valued at Rs. 13230/- billion in 2006 and India's services trade inclusive of export and import was Rs. 6435 billion. Thus, India's global economic engagement in 2006 covering both merchandise and services trade was of the order of Rs. 19665 billion, up by a record 72% from a level of Rs. 11385 billion in 2004. India's trade has reached a still relatively moderate share 24% of GDP in 2006, up from 6% in 1985.
Despite robust economic growth, India continues to face many major problems. The recent economic development has widened the economic inequality across the country. Despite sustained high economic growth rate, approximately 80% of its population lives on less than Rs.90 a day (PPP). Even though the arrival of Green Revolution brought end to famines in India, 40% of children under the age of three are underweight and a third of all men and women suffer from chronic energy deficiency
Features of Indian Economy
Structural features of Indian economy imply structure of the economy which is as following:
(a) Mixed economy: It is a mixture of private and public enterprises
(b) Dual economy: There is traditional agriculture and modern industries
(c) Agrarian economy: prominence of agriculture in the economy both as a contributor to the GDP as well as to the generation of employment.
An estimate by Cambridge University historian Angus Maddison reveals that "India's share of the world income fell from 22.6% in 1700, comparable to Europe's share of 23.3%, to a low of 3.8% in 1952
From 1947 to 1991
Indian economic policy after independence was influenced by the colonial experience. Five year plans in India resembled central planning in the Soviet Union. Steel, mining, machine tools, water, telecommunications, insurance, and electrical plants, among other industries, were effectively nationalized in the mid-1950s. Elaborate licenses, regulations and the accompanying red tape, commonly referred to as License Raj were required to set up business in India between 1947 and 1990
Since 1991
In the late 80s, the government led by Rajiv Gandhi eased restrictions on capacity expansion for incumbents, removed price controls and reduced corporate taxes. While this increased the rate of growth, it also led to high fiscal deficits and a worsening current account. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which was India's major trading partner, and the first Gulf War, which caused a spike in oil prices, caused a major balance-of-payments crisis for India, which found it facing the prospect of defaulting on its loans. India asked for a $1.8 billion bailout loan from IMF, which in return demanded reforms.
In response, Prime Minister Narsimha Rao along with his finance minister Manmohan Singh initiated the economic liberalization of 1991. The reforms did away with the License Raj (investment, industrial and import licensing) and ended many public monopolies, allowing automatic approval of foreign direct investment in many sectors. Since then, the overall direction of liberalization has remained the same, irrespective of the ruling party, although no party has tried to take on powerful lobbies such as the trade unions and farmers, or contentious issues such as reforming Labour laws and reducing agricultural subsidies.
Since 1990 India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing economies in the developing world; during this period, the economy has grown constantly, but with a few major setbacks. This has been accompanied by increases in life expectancy, literacy rates and food security.
Agriculture
India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2007, employed 60% of the total workforce and despite a steady decline of its share in the GDP, is still the largest economic sector and plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic development of India. Yields per unit area of all crops have grown since 1950, due to the special emphasis placed on agriculture in the five-year plans and steady improvements in irrigation, technology, application of modern agricultural practices and provision of agricultural credit and subsidies since Green revolution in India. However, international comparisons reveal the average yield in India is generally 30% to 50% of the highest average yield in the world.
India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper
It also has the world's largest cattle population: 193 million. It is the second largest producer of wheat, rice, sugar, wheat, cotton, silk, peanut and inland fish. It is the third largest producer of tobacco. India is the largest fruit producer, accounting for 10% of the world fruit production. It is the leading producer of bananas, sapotas and mangoes.
India is the second largest producer and the largest consumer of silk in the world, with the majority of the 77 million kg (2005) production taking place in Karnataka State, particularly in Mysore and the North Bangalore regions of Muddenahalli, Kanivenarayanpura and Doddaballapura the upcoming sites of a INR 700 million "Silk City"
INDUSTRY AND SERVICES
Industry accounts for 20% of the GDP and employ 17% of the total workforce. However, about one-third of the industrial Labour force is engaged in simple household manufacturing only. In absolute terms, India is 16th in the world in terms of nominal factory output. India's small industry makes up 5% of carbon dioxide emissions in the world.
Economic reforms brought foreign competition, led to privatization of certain public sector industries, opened up sectors hitherto reserved for the public sector and led to an expansion in the production of fast-moving consumer goods. Post-liberalization, 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. It has since handled the change by squeezing costs, revamping management, focusing on designing new products and relying on low Labour costs and technology.
Textile manufacturing is the second largest source for employment after agriculture and accounts for 26% of manufacturing output. Tirupur has gained universal recognition as the leading source of hosiery, knitted garments, casual wear and sportswear.Dharavi slum in Mumbai has gained fame for leather products. Tata Motors’ Nano attempts to be the world's cheapest car.
India is 15th in services output. It provides employment to 34% of work force, and it is growing fast. It has the largest share in the GDP, accounting for 62.6% up from 15% in 1950.
Business services (information technology, information technology enabled services, business process outsourcing) are among the fastest growing sectors contributing to one third of the total output of services in 2000. The growth in the IT sector is attributed to increased specialization, and an availability of a large pool of low cost, but highly skilled, educated and fluent English-speaking workers, on the supply side, matched on the demand side by an increased demand from foreign consumers interested in India's service exports, or those looking to outsource their operations. The share of India’s IT industry to the country's GDP increased from 4.8 % in 2005-06 to 7% in 2008. In 2009, seven Indian firms were listed among the top 15 technology outsourcing companies in the world. In March 2009, annual revenues from outsourcing operations in India amounted to US$60 billion and this is expected to increase to US$225 billion by 2020.
Organized retail such supermarkets accounts for 24% of the market as of 2008. Regulations prevent most foreign investment in retailing. Moreover, over thirty regulations such as "signboard licenses" and "anti-hoarding measures" may have to be complied before a store can open doors. There are taxes for moving goods to states, from states, and even within states. Tourism in India is relatively undeveloped, but growing at double digits. Some hospitals woo medical tourism.
Banking and finance
The Indian money market is classified into: the organsized sector (comprising private, public and foreign owned commercial banks and cooperative banks, together known as scheduled banks); and the unorganized sector (comprising individual or family owned indigenous bankers or money lenders and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs)). The unorganized sector and micro credit are still preferred over traditional banks in rural and sub-urban areas, especially for non-productive purposes, like ceremonies and short duration loans.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi nationalised 14 banks in 1969, followed by six others in 1980, and made it mandatory for banks to provide 40% of their net credit to priority sectors like agriculture, small-scale industry, retail trade, small businesses, etc. to ensure that the banks fulfill their social and developmental goals. Since then, the number of bank branches has increased from 10,120 in 1969 to 98,910 in 2003 and the population covered by a branch decreased from 63,800 to 15,000 during the same period. The total deposits increased 32.6 times between 1971 to 1991 compared to 7 times between 1951 and 971. Despite an increase of rural branches, from 1,860 or 22% of the total number of branches in 1969 to 32,270 or 48%, only 32,270 out of 5 lakh (500,000) villages are covered by a scheduled bank.
The public sector banks hold over 75% of total assets of the banking industry, with the private and foreign banks holding 18.2% and 6.5% respectively.[90] Since liberalization, the government has approved significant banking reforms. While some of these relate to nationalised banks (like encouraging mergers, reducing government interference and increasing profitability and competitiveness), other reforms have opened up the banking and insurance sectors to private and foreign players. More than half of personal savings are invested in physical assets such as land, houses, cattle and gold.
NATURAL RESOURCES
India's total cultivable area is 1,269,219 km² (56.78% of total land area), which is decreasing due to constant pressure from an ever growing population and increased urbanization. India has a total water surface area of 314,400 km² and receives an average annual rainfall of 1,100 mm. Irrigation accounts for 92% of the water utilization, and comprised 380 km² in 1974, and is expected to rise to 1,050 km² by 2025, with the balance accounted for by industrial and domestic consumers. India's inland water resources comprising rivers, canals, ponds and lakes and marine resources comprising the east and west coasts of the Indian Ocean and other gulfs and bays provide employment to nearly 6 million people in the fisheries sector. In 2008, India had the world's third largest fishing industry.
India's major mineral resources include coal, iron, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium, chromites, limestone and thorium. India meets most of its domestic energy demand through its 92 billion tones of coal reserves (about 10% of world's coal reserves).
India's huge thorium reserves — about 25% of world's reserves — is expected to fuel the country's ambitious nuclear energy program in the long-run. India's dwindling uranium reserves stagnated the growth of nuclear energy in the country for many years. However, the Indo-US nuclear deal has paved the way for India to import uranium from other countries. India is also believed to be rich in certain renewable sources of energy with significant future potential such as solar, wind and biofuels (jatropha, sugarcane).
Petroleum and Natural gas
India's oil reserves, found in Bombay High, parts of Gujarat, Rjasthan and Eastern Assam, meet 25% of the country's domestic oil demand. India's total proven oil reserves stand at 11 billion barrels, of which Bombay High is believed to hold 6.1 billion barrels and Mangala Area in Rajasthan, an additional 3.6 billion barrels.
In 2009, India imported 2.56 million barrels of oil per day, making it one of largest buyers of crude oil in the world. The petroleum industry in India mostly consists of public sector companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL). There are some major private Indian companies in oil sector such as Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) which operates the world's largest oil refining complex.
Pharmaceuticals
India has a self reliant Pharmaceuticals industry. The majority of its medical consumables are produced domestically. Pharmaceutical Industry in India is dotted with companies like Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla which have created a niche for themselves at world level.
Today, India is an exporter of countries like United States and Russia. In terms of the global market, India currently holds a modest 1-2% share, but it has been growing at approximately 10% per year. Indian Pharmaceutical Industry is often compared to Pharmaceutical Industry in the USA.
External trade and investment
India's economy is mostly dependent on its large internal market with external trade accounting for just 20% of the country's GDP. In 2008, India accounted for 1.45% of global merchandise trade and 2.8% of global commercial services export. Until the liberalization of 1991, India was largely and intentionally isolated from the world markets, to protect its economy and to achieve self-reliance.
India's exports were stagnant for the first 15 years after independence, due to the predominance of tea, jute and cotton manufactures, demand for which was generally inelastic. Imports in the same period consisted predominantly of machinery, equipment and raw materials, due to nascent industrialization.
Since liberalization, the value of India's international trade has become more broad-based and has risen to Rs. 63,080,109 crore in 2003–04 from Rs.1, 250 crore in 1950–51. India's major trading partners are China, the US, the UAE, the UK, Japan and the EU. The exports during April 2007 were $12.31 billion up by 16% and import were $17.68 billion with an increase of 18.06% over the previous year. In 2006-07, major export commodities included engineering goods, petroleum products, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, textiles and garments, agricultural products, iron ore and other minerals. Major import commodities included crude oil and related products, machinery, electronic goods, gold and silver.
India is a founding-member of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) since 1947 and its successor, the WTO. While participating actively in its general council meetings, India has been crucial in voicing the concerns of the developing world. For instance, India has continued its opposition to the inclusion of such matters as Labour and environment issues and other non-tariff barriers into the WTO policies.
Income and consumption
• 77.7% of the population lives on less than $2.50 (PPP) a day, down from 92.5% in 1981. This compares with 80.5% in.
• 65.6% of the population lives on less than $2 a day (PPP), which is around 20 rupees or $0.5 a day in nominal terms. It was down from 86.6% and compares with 73.0% in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• 24.3% of the population earned less than $1 (PPP, around $0.25 in nominal terms) a day in 2005, down from 42.1% in 1981.
• 41.6% of its population is living below the new international poverty line of $1.25 (PPP) per day, down from 59.8% in 1981. The World Bank further estimates that a third of the global poor now reside in India.
Today, more people can afford a bicycle than ever before. Some 40% of Indian households owns a bicycle, with ownership rates ranging from around 30% to 70% at state level. Housing is modest. According to Times of India, "a majority of Indians have per capita space equivalent to or less than a 10 feet x 10 feet room for their living, sleeping, cooking, washing and toilet needs." and "one in every three urban Indians lives in homes too cramped to exceed even the minimum requirements of a prison cell in the US." The average is 103 sq ft (9.6 m2) per person in rural areas and 117 sq ft (10.9 m2) per person in urban areas.
Around half of Indian children are malnourished. While poverty in India has reduced significantly, official figures estimate that 27.5% of Indians still lived below the national poverty line of $1 (PPP, around 10 rupees in nominal terms) a day in 2004-2005. A 2007 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) found that 65% of Indians, or 750 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees per day with most working in "informal Labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty."
Since the early 1950s, successive governments have implemented various schemes, under planning, to alleviate poverty that have met with partial success. All these programmes have relied upon the strategies of the Food for work programme and National Rural Employment Programme of the 1980s, which attempted to use the unemployed to generate productive assets and build rural infrastructure. In August 2005, the Indian parliament passed the Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, the largest programme of this type in terms of cost and coverage, which promises 100 days of minimum wage employment to every rural household in all the India’s 600 districts. The question of whether economic reforms have reduced poverty or not has fuelled debates without generating any clear cut answers and has also put political pressure on further economic reforms, especially those involving the downsizing of Labour and cutting agricultural subsidies.
Employment
Agricultural and allied sectors accounted for about 60% of the total workforce in 2003 same as in 1993–94. While agriculture has faced stagnation in growth, services have seen a steady growth. Of the total workforce, 8% is in the organized sector, two-thirds of which are in the public sector. The NSSO survey estimated that in 1999–2000, 106 million, nearly 10% of the population were unemployed and the overall unemployment rate was 7.3%, with rural areas doing marginally better (7.2%) than urban areas (7.7%). India's labor force is growing by 2.5% annually, but employment only at 2.3% a year.
Official unemployment exceeds 9%. Regulation and other obstacles have discouraged the emergence of formal businesses and jobs. Almost 30% of workers are casual workers who work only when they are able to get jobs and remain unpaid for the rest of the time. Only 10% of the workforce is in regular employment. India's labor regulations are heavy even by developing country standards and analysts have urged the government to abolish them.
Unemployment in India is characterized by chronic underemployment or disguised unemployment. Government schemes that target eradication of both poverty and unemployment (which in recent decades has sent millions of poor and unskilled people into urban areas in search of livelihoods) attempt to solve the problem, by providing financial assistance for setting up businesses, skill honing, setting up public sector enterprises, reservations in governments, etc. The decreased role of the public sector after liberalization has further underlined the need for focusing on better education and has also put political pressure on further reforms.
Child labor is a complex problem that is basically rooted in poverty. The Indian government is implementing the world's largest child labor elimination program, with primary education targeted for ~250 million. Numerous non-governmental and voluntary organizations are also involved. Special investigation cells have been set up in states to enforce existing laws banning employment of children (under 14) in hazardous industries. The allocation of the Government of India for the eradication of child labor was $10 million in 1995-96 and $16 million in 1996-97. The allocation for 2007 was $21 million. In 2006, remittances from Indian migrants overseas made up $27 billion or about 3% of India's GDP.
Issues
Agriculture
The low productivity in India is a result of the following factors:
• According to "India: Priorities for Agriculture and Rural Development" by World Bank, India's large agricultural subsidies are hampering productivity-enhancing investment. Overregulation of agriculture has increased costs, price risks and uncertainty. Government interventions in labor, land, and credit markets are hurting the market. Infrastructure and services are inadequate.
• Illiteracy, slow progress in implementing land reforms and inadequate or inefficient finance and marketing services for farm produce.
• The average size of land holdings is very small (less than 20,000 m²) and is subject to fragmentation, due to land ceiling acts and in some cases, family disputes. Such small holdings are often over-manned, resulting in disguised unemployment and low productivity of Labour.
• Adoption of modern agricultural practices and use of technology is inadequate, hampered by ignorance of such practices, high costs and impracticality in the case of small land holdings.
• World Bank says that the allocation of water is inefficient, unsustainable and inequitable. The irrigation infrastructure is deteriorating. Irrigation facilities are inadequate, as revealed by the fact that only 52.6% of the land was irrigated in 2003–04, which result in farmers still being dependent on rainfall, specifically the Monsoon season. A good monsoon results in a robust growth for the economy as a whole, while a poor monsoon leads to a sluggish growth. Farm credit is regulated by NABARD, which is the statutory apex agent for rural development in the subcontinent.
India has many farm insurance companies that insure wheat, fruit, and rice and rubber farmers in the event of natural disasters or catastrophic crop failure, under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture. One notable company that provides all of these insurance policies is Agriculture Insurance Company of India and it alone insures almost 20 million farmers.
India's population is growing faster than its ability to produce rice and wheat. The most important structural reform for self-sufficiency is the ITC Limited plan to connect 20,000 villages to the Internet by 2013. This will provide farmers with up to date crop prices for the first time, which should minimize losses incurred from neighboring producers selling early and in turn facilitate investment in rural areas.
Corruption
Corruption has been one of the pervasive problems affecting India. The economic reforms of 1991 reduced the red-tape , bureaucracy and the License Raj that had strangled private enterprise. Yet, a 2005 study by Transparency International (TI) India found that more than half of those surveyed had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office.
The Right to Information Act (2005) and equivalent acts in the Indian states that require government officials to furnish information requested by citizens or face punitive action, computerization of services and various central and state government acts that established vigilance commissions have considerably reduced corruption or at least have opened up avenues to redress grievances. The 2009 report by Transparency International ranks India at 84th place and states that significant improvements were made by India in reducing corruption.
Education
India has made huge progress in terms of increasing primary education attendance rate and expanding literacy to approximately two thirds of the population. The right to education at elementary level has been made one of the fundamental rights under the Eighty-Sixth Amendment of 2002. However, education is still far behind developing countries such as China and continues to face challenges. Despite growing investment in education, 40% of the population is illiterate and only 15% of the students reach high school. An optimistic estimate is that only one in five job-seekers in India has ever had any sort of vocational training.
Infrastructure
Development of infrastructure was completely in the hands of the public sector and was plagued by corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, urban-bias and an inability to scale investment. India's low spending on power, construction, transportation, and telecommunications and, at $31 billion or 6% of GDP in 2002 had prevented India from sustaining higher growth rates. This has prompted the government to partially open up infrastructure to the private sector allowing foreign investment which has helped in a sustained growth rate of close to 9% for the past six quarters.
posted by U&Me | 1:17 AM
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