A Developement Blueprint for India

Since Amartya Sen has advanced the capability theory in welfare economics, we have come to appreciate the importance of functional capabilities as a parameter of development of an economy and the society at large. This lends governments across the world to focus on capability enhancement, which is the driver for development. India currently boasts of being an emerging economic superpower. But how much of this has translated into real development? According to the Human Development Report 2009, India stands at a poor 135th rank in decreasing order of development. Is something amiss? Are we progressing as fast as we should and in the right direction? These are some of the questions that haunt us as we step into the second decade of the new millennium.

A vast majority of our population is still languishing at the bottom of the pyramid. According to Prof. CK Prahlad (Author: Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid), a rhombus-shaped demographical spread should be what our developmental efforts must be targeted at, rather than the wide-based pyramid that exists currently. Understandably then, we must target fast-paced socio-economic development through capability addition at the bottom of the pyramid. In simple words, empowerment and enablement of the poor should be the focus of our agenda and should consume the king’s share of our resources. Development of capabilities would encompass wide-ranging social objectives like rural education, promotion of rural entrepreneurship through microfinance and other measures, impetus to rural infrastructure development, inland water redistribution (connecting rivers), etc. This will automatically silence many social devils like naxalism which threaten to decimate our country in the near future.

Further, the HDR 2009 states that large gains to human development can be achieved by lowering barriers to human movement and improving the treatment of movers. This should be another focus area for application of our resources. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are prime examples of how development has been sought to have kept out of bounds of immigrants. This has to end and a lot of our resources also have to be diverted towards eradication of this social demon too.

I’m sure that by this two-point agenda, the orientation of our developmental efforts will be in synergy with the paradigm of holistic development and inclusive growth.