[ARTICLE] The North-South Gap in India
Dec. 11th, 2003 03:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldFrom India's Financial Express, an interesting article by V. Govindarajan on India's regional disparities, Regional Disparities: Some Issues And Challenges.
The issue of disparities in the regional growth rates and development in India has been attracting attention, particularly in the recent past. The southern states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu, together with Maharashtra, have been doing relatively better, and have clocked a growth rate of about 6.3% per annum in the decade, 1992-2002, while the BIMARU (Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, UP) states have registered a growth rate of only 4.6%. The first set of states has consistently ranked higher than the BIMARU states with respect to the Human Development Indices.
The projected growth rate of over 7% for the current year for the country as a whole has, understandably, created an enthusiasm bordering on euphoria. Vijay Kelkar and NK Singh have argued that this growth rate is likely to be sustained over the medium- and long-term. This optimism is based on the concept of the "Demographic Dividend". Put in a nutshell, the theory of "Demographic Dividend" propounds that the high population growth in the recent past would provide a large able-bodied workforce in the coming decades and, thereby, a high potential for growth and employment in a period of demographic transition, during which the highest proportion of population would be in the working age-group.
[...]
This sort of regional disparity will become increasingly common as more Third World countries industrialize. China, for instance, can be divided between a relatively prosperous and urbanized coast and a relatively poor and rural interior, while Brazil has its own north-south divide (though it's the south that's rich and the north that's poor in Brazil's case). The question of ensuring balanced regional development is a question that has preoccupied many people worldwide--it's a major feature of Canada's public economy, for instance, and in Europe it is also a major theme (both within member-states and across the EU as a whole). Unfortunately, although convergernce is possible--as evidenced in Europe by Ireland and Portugal--little suggests that this growth reaches far into marginal hinterlands; western Ireland and interior Portugal remain almost as poor as ever. And, of course, there is Atlantic Canada.
The issue of disparities in the regional growth rates and development in India has been attracting attention, particularly in the recent past. The southern states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu, together with Maharashtra, have been doing relatively better, and have clocked a growth rate of about 6.3% per annum in the decade, 1992-2002, while the BIMARU (Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, UP) states have registered a growth rate of only 4.6%. The first set of states has consistently ranked higher than the BIMARU states with respect to the Human Development Indices.
The projected growth rate of over 7% for the current year for the country as a whole has, understandably, created an enthusiasm bordering on euphoria. Vijay Kelkar and NK Singh have argued that this growth rate is likely to be sustained over the medium- and long-term. This optimism is based on the concept of the "Demographic Dividend". Put in a nutshell, the theory of "Demographic Dividend" propounds that the high population growth in the recent past would provide a large able-bodied workforce in the coming decades and, thereby, a high potential for growth and employment in a period of demographic transition, during which the highest proportion of population would be in the working age-group.
[...]
This sort of regional disparity will become increasingly common as more Third World countries industrialize. China, for instance, can be divided between a relatively prosperous and urbanized coast and a relatively poor and rural interior, while Brazil has its own north-south divide (though it's the south that's rich and the north that's poor in Brazil's case). The question of ensuring balanced regional development is a question that has preoccupied many people worldwide--it's a major feature of Canada's public economy, for instance, and in Europe it is also a major theme (both within member-states and across the EU as a whole). Unfortunately, although convergernce is possible--as evidenced in Europe by Ireland and Portugal--little suggests that this growth reaches far into marginal hinterlands; western Ireland and interior Portugal remain almost as poor as ever. And, of course, there is Atlantic Canada.
