We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2023
This chapter deals with two key factors that are very specific to the Indian economy: the democratic paradox of public service delivery and the service-sector-led growth puzzle, and also discusses, briefly, the challenge of climate change.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARADOX OF PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
Education is good for economic growth. Education will assist in the adoption of new technology, in attracting FDI and boosting the productivity of labour, as well as more generally in terms of improving the functioning of the democratic process and also of welfare indicators (such as child mortality, fertility and child literacy). In India (see chapter 5) enrolment rates have risen rapidly in recent years but quality measures of Indian schooling remain atrocious. The slow improvement in quantity and the longstanding poor quality of education represents a paradox. Both elites (being able to employ more productive workers and receiving more FDI) and the poor (higher incomes and better health) would benefit from better education. Education is unlike tax-based income redistribution, which imposes a cost on one group (often the richer) to raise the incomes of another group (often the poorer). India is also a democracy in which the poor, rural and illiterate vote more than the rich, urban and educated and where perhaps as many as 70 per cent of the population live on less than $2 per day. So why are politicians not voted in and out of office according to their promise and performance in the delivery of public services, in particular education? Where is the democratic politics of public service delivery in contemporary India? Recall the survey which showed that parents did not view the dire state of education in their village as a pressing problem. In order to answer these questions, we first need to examine whether India’s economic growth has delivered equivalent welfare gains.
Growth without development
The widely-held view is that three decades of rapid economic growth in India has not translated into equivalent welfare gains for all parts of the population, called here “growth without development”.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
