India shining rests on fragile base, say economists

Friday, 07 May 2004, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India's eight percent economic growth is unsustainable with fundamental areas like health, education and sanitation being ignored, a leading economist said Thursday. "Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's claim to fame for India Shining and the Feel Good Factor have sheer luck with certain positive economic factors like a soaring agricultural output (due to a favourable monsoon), an increase in foreign exchange reserves, a plummeting interest rate and a rising sensitivity index," said M.K. Chaudhuri. Founder of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) here, Chaudhuri released The Indian Economy Review 2003-2004 Thursday. It probes the reasons for India recording 8.1 percent growth in 2003-04 as against four percent in the previous fiscal. "Peeping deep into the eight percent growth rate, one finds that all these factors are fragile and short-lived and are not sustainable for a long period. Our government has always ignored the fundamental areas of health, education, sanitation and creating purchasing power for the masses," he said. "Through the Indian Economy Review, our endeavour is to take the subject to where it belongs - the people of India," added Prasoon S. Majumdar, chief editor and dean academics at IIPM. "We have also made an attempt to arrest cynicism, ubiquitously associated with the subject, by first highlighting the predicaments followed by workable solutions propounded by exponents of specialised areas," he said. The review covers issues beyond the feel good factor that is projected using the Indian stock market indices or IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) success stories. Said IIPM's Arindam Chaudhuri and author of "Don't Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch" who is also the managing editor of the review: "It analyses what needs to be done to annul the element of development deterrents in the country and offer concrete proposals on how to accelerate progress everywhere towards achieving holistic development with human face."
Source: IANS
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