Development in India: A Reality Check

At the dawn of history, India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her successes, and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike, she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again. The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future? (Nehru, 1947 )

After more than sixty years of freedom, the country has successfully emerged as a large democratic system. India is considered today as one of the emerging economies of the world. The country has recorded higher levels of growth (of more than 7 per cent) in the last 10 years. India’s performance in terms of various social indicators has improved. Life expectancy at birth which was 32 years in (1950-51) has doubled to 66 years in 2010-11 . The male literacy rate has increased from 27% (1950-51) to 82% (2010-2011) . Similarly, the female literacy rate has increased from 9% (1950-51) to 65% (2010-2011) . The estimated population below the poverty line (prior to Tendulkar Committee report) has decreased by 49% (2004-05) . These are substantial achievements that the country has realized in the last six decades. However, if India is seen from a comparative perspective, the country lags behind several of its Asian counterparts in various indicators. The average annual growth rate of per capita GDP from (1961-2011) was 3.1% in India while that in China was 6.8%, in South Korea was 5.4% and in Thailand was 4.3% . The only countries that p...

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...isis, Pg.154, An Uncertain Glory, India and Its Contradictions

(Desai, Dubey, Joshi, Sen, Shariff, & Vaneeman, 2010)

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Please refer to, India’s Health Care Crisis, Table 6.3 ,Child Nutrition Indicators, 2006-10, Pg.159, An Uncertain Glory, India and Its Contradictions

Please refer to, The Centrality of Education, Pg.107-109, An Uncertain Glory, India and Its Contradictions

Please refer to, The Centrality of Education, Table 5.1, Literacy Rates in Selected Asian Countries, Pg.113, An Uncertain Glory, India and Its Contradictions

(Desai, Dubey, Joshi, Sen, Shariff, & Vaneeman, 2010)

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

Please refer to, Table 3.3, South Asia: Selected Indicators, Pg.55, An Uncertain Glory, India and Its Contradictions

(Desai, Dubey, Joshi, Sen, Shariff, & Vaneeman, 2010)

Ibid.

Ibid.