Major developmental issues in India include low per capita income, unequal income distribution, poor quality of human capital, heavy dependence on agriculture, high inflation rates, lack of infrastructure, slow capital formation, corruption, high population pressure, low levels of technology, lack of access to basic amenities, illiteracy, and underutilization of natural resources. Unemployment and inequality are also significant problems. India has high levels of gender, caste, religious, ethnic, and economic inequality that restrict access to opportunities and resources for many groups.
3. Introduction
• Despite being the 4th largest economy in the world, India is still classed
as a developing country.
• Population of 1,366,417,754
• The World‟s largest electoral democracy (Eligible voters: 714 million)
• UN-Human Development Index 2009 HDI, Medium HDI (0.64)
• Life Expectancy of 69.89 years
• Population below poverty line of 22%
• 47% of all children are malnourished and classified as underweight
• Literacy rates: 74.04%
▪ male: 82.14%
▪ female: 65.46% (2011 census)
4. Major developmental issues :
Low per capita income:
• Usually, developing economies have a low per-capita income. The per capita
income in India in 2018 was $2104.20. In the same year, the per-capita
Gross National Income (GNI) of USA was 8 times that of India and that of
China was 2.5 times higher than India.
Unequal distribution of income:
• This makes the problem of poverty a critical one and a big obstacle in the
economic progress of the country.
5. Poor Quality of Human Capital:
• Capital formation includes the use of any resource that enhances the
capacity of production.
• Therefore, the knowledge and training of the population is a form of capital.
Hence, the expenditure on education, skill-training, research, and
improvement in health are a part of human capital.
• the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), ranks countries based on
the Human Development Index (HDI). This is based on the life expectancy,
education, and per-capita income. In this index, India ranked 130 out of 188
countries in 2018.
6. Huge dependence of population on agriculture:
• The unequal distribution of occupations in the country led to the
backwardness of the Indian economy
• According to the World Bank, in 2018, nearly 47% of the working population
in India was engaged in agriculture. Unfortunately, it contributed merely
17-18% to the national income implying a low productivity per person in the
sector. The expansion of industries failed to attract enough manpower either.
Inflation rate:
• Inflation rate is defined as the annual percent change in consumer prices
compared with the previous year's consumer prices.
• Inflation in India is an increasing problem.the averag Inflation in 2019 is
7.34%. The rising prices of basic amenities have created furore among the
people. Rising rates of food items and fuel have affected the pockets of the
middle class
7. Lack of infrastructure:
• The lack of infrastructural facilities is a serious problem affecting the Indian
economy. These include transportation, communication, electricity
generation, and distribution, banking and credit facilities, health and
educational institutions, etc. Therefore, the potential of different regions of the
country remains under-utilized.
• Power, Oil, Gas, Aviation, Roads — all these form the backbone of countrys’
development. Indian companies — on an average — lose 30 days in
obtaining an electricity connection, 15 days in clearing exports through
customs, and lose 7% of the value of their sales due to power outages.
Currently, only 30% of India is urbanized. The government by itself will not be
able to build the infrastructure. It has to move for models of public-private
partnerships. These will yield some successes in areas such as road-building
and ports.
8. Slow improvement in Rate of Capital Formation:
• India always had a deficiency of capital. However, in recent years, India has
experienced a slow but steady improvement in capital formation. We
experienced a population growth of 1.6 percent during 2000-05 and needed
to invest around 6.4 percent to offset the additional burden due to the
increased population.
• Therefore, India requires a gross capital formation of around 14 percent to
offset depreciation and maintain the same level of living. The only way to
improve the standard of living is to increase the rate of gross capital
formation.
9. Corruption:
• Corruption is ruining the spine of the nation, and has adversely affected the
economy of India.
• India is ranked 78 out of a 179 countries in Transparency International's
Corruption Perceptions Index, but its score has improved by 3 place 81 in
2018.
• Instances of corruption in the nation are many and seems to be never-
ending. If India were a nation devoid of corruption, the poverty levels would
have been much lower.
• Corruption is no more confined to one or two persons; it has become a huge
network spread all over the country. Historically, corruption has taken the role
of a pervasive aspect of Indian politics and bureaucracy.
10. Heavy population pressure:
• Today, India is the second most-populated country in the world, the first being
China.
• We have a high-level of birth rates and a falling level of death rates. In order
to maintain a growing population, the administration needs to take care of the
basic requirements of food, clothing, shelter, medicine, schooling, etc. Hence,
there is an increased developmental burden on the country.
Low level of technology:
• New technologies are being developed every day. However, they are
expensive and require people with a considerable amount of skill to apply
them in production.
• Therefore, the deficiency of human capital and the absence of skilled labor
are major hurdles in spreading technology in the economy.
• And most enterprises in India are micro or small. Hence, they cannot afford
modern and more productive technologies.
11. Lack of access to basic amenities
• In 2011, according to the Census of India, nearly 7 percent of India’s
population lives in rural and slum areas. Also, only 46.6 percent of
households in India have access to drinking water within their premises. Also,
only 46.9 percent of households have toilet facilities within the household
premises.
• This leads to the low efficiency of Indian workers. Also, dedicated and skilled
healthcare personnel are required for the efficient and effective delivery of
health services. However, ensuring that such professionals are available in a
country like India is a huge challenge.
12. Illitreacy:
• The level is well below the world average literacy rate of 84%,and of all
nations, India currently has the largest illiterate population.Despite
government programs, India's literacy rate increased only "sluggishly,"
• And a 1990 study estimated that it would take until 2060 for India to achieve
universal literacy at then-current rate of progress.
• The 2011 census,however, indicated a 2001–2011 decadal literacy growth of
9.2%, which is the slower than the growth seen during the previous decade
• .On one hand, India has a state like Kerala that boasts of 93.91% literacy in
its state alone, while on the other hand there is a backward state like Bihar
with 68.8% literacy rate.
13. Health Care Industries :
• India is a major spot for medical tourism attracting people from around the
world. But the status of medical technology is weak.
• We have been importing almost 90% of our technical equipments from round
the world. Kits for very common diseases like malaria are imported from
places abroad where the diseases are never heard of.
• Huge scanning equipments like MRI, CT Scan etc. are all brought from
foreign dealers. China has a great lead compared to us due to its
manufacturing units present.
• Unless and until we establish ourselves in manufacturing and distribution of
medical equipments, the cost of treatment will rise and proper health care
would be unaffordable by the already needy masses.
14. Demographic characteristics:
• According to the 2011 Census, India had a population density of 382 per
square kilometer as against the world population density of 41 per square
kilometer.
• Further, 29.5 percent was in the age group of 0-14 years, 62.5 percent in the
working age group of 15-59 years, and around 8 percent in the age group of
60 years and above. This proves that the dependency burden of our
population is very high
Under-utilisation of natural resources:
• India is rich in natural resources like land, water, minerals, and power
resources. However, due to problems like inaccessible regions, primitive
technologies, and a shortage of capital, these resources are largely under-
utilized. This contributes to the developmental issues in India.
15. Alternative Fuels:
• The dominant source of power is coal, which accounts for some 60% of
power generation. Coal is infamous for its significant environmental effects,
including gaseous emissions, high ash content, problems with disposal of
ash, and its large emissions of carbon-dioxide.
• As an example, small-scale industries in Kolkata were found to be
contributing some 44% of overall particulate emissions in the central area as
they were using coal-fired boilers.
• With the rising population and demand for fuels rising everyday along with
the depletion of common sources, promoting research for new alternatives
must be stressed upon.
16.
17. Unemployment and Under-employment:
• “Persons of legally working age that is unable to find an activity for wages or profits
despite a willingness to work and available on the job market.” -ILO
• About 31 million or 3.8 percent of India’s population is unemployed, according to figures
released for 2017 by World Bank.
• In 2018, rate of unemployment in India is around 6%.
• There is an abundance of labor in our country which makes it difficult to provide gainful
employment to the entire population.
• Also, the deficiency of capital has led to the inadequate growth of the secondary and
tertiary occupations. This has further contributed to chronic unemployment and under-
employment in India.
• With nearly half of the working population engaged in agriculture, the marginal product of
an agricultural laborer has become negligible.
• The problem of the increasing number of educated-unemployed has added to the woes
of the country too.
18. Causes of Unemployment in India
1.Jobless economic growth:
• Economic growth without adequate employment opportunities. India’s GDP is
said to be at 7.5% but this does not always translate to jobs.
2.Useless Educational Degrees:
• Holding useless educational degrees is the main cause of unemployment in
India, according to ASSOCHAM.
3.Reluctance to Relocate:
• Majority of Indians are unwilling to relocate within the country for employment
purposes due to family ties and xenophobia.
4.Preference for Government Jobs:
• Traditionally, Indian women and men prefer employment jobs with the Central
and state governments or Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
19. 5.Stigmas and Caste System:
• The antiquated caste system of India places restrictions on women and
men performing certain types of jobs.
6.Gender Inequality in India:
• Thousands of Indian women go unemployed.due to stigmas are attached
to women working as cabbies, auto-rickshaw drivers etc,
• Despite recent strides by the Indian government to eradicate gender
inequality in jobs, the problem persists.
• For example, qualified and aspiring Indian women cannot take up several
types of jobs in the Indian Armed Forces.
• Nor does Indian Railways hire women ticket checkers for deploying on
long-distance trains.
20. Types of Unemployment in India
1.Vulnerable Employment:
• Over 77 percent of Indian workforce consists of vulnerable employment
• The people working informally, without proper job contracts and any legal protection.
• Usually, persons with vulnerable employment are deemed ‘unemployed’ since records of
their work are never maintained.
2.Disguised Unemployment:
• It is a situation where a large number of unskilled and poverty-stricken people are hired
for seasonal work for very low wages. Hence, their records are not maintained and figure
as ‘unemployed’.
• Disguised unemployment in India is rampant in the large agriculture, construction and
unorganized hospitality sectors.
3.Structural Unemployment:
• Structural unemployment is also rampant in rural and urban India. It occurs because
skills of a worker do not match requirements of an employer. It also occurs when an
economy cannot provide jobs to highly skilled workers.
21. 4.Frictional Unemployment:
• Frictional unemployment rates are modest in India. Main cause of
frictional unemployment in India is the reluctance among people to
relocate to other places to take jobs.
• Insufficient knowledge about employment opportunities is also a
contributory factor.
5.Seasonal unemployment:
• Seasonal unemployment occurs in India on account of extreme weather
conditions making work impossible.
6.Addiction Unemployment:
• This type of unemployment occurs when a skilled person cannot find work
due to alcohol or drug addiction.
• Addiction employment can be effectively curbed through proper
rehabilitation of addicts.
22. 7.Accident and Chronic Sickness Unemployment:
• In India, nothing is being done to wipe out unemployment caused by
accidents and chronic sickness. Employers shun skilled workers that
sustain physical disabilities due to accidents or become chronically ill for
any reason.
• Very limited resources are available for victims of accidents and chronic
sicknesses to find employment in India.
8.Crime Related Unemployment:
• Developed countries have elaborate programs for rehabilitating former
convicts of crimes into the mainstream society. In India, such programs
are conspicuously lacking and at best, inadequate.
9.Calamity Unemployment:
• Calamity unemployment occurs when people from one region are forced
to migrate to another geographical location due to natural or human-made
disaster.
23.
24. Inequality in India:
• The United Nations describes inequality as “the state of not being equal,
especially in status, rights and opportunities”.
• Inequality can be broadly classified in to:
• Economic inequality: Economic inequality is the unequal distribution of income and
opportunity between individuals or different groups in society.
• Social inequality: It occurs when resources in a given society are distributed
unevenly based on norms of a society that creates specific patterns along
lines of socially defined categories e.g. religion, prestige, race, caste,
ethnicity, gender etc
25. Dimensions of Inequality in India
• In India, following are distinctive forms of social inequality:
• Gender:
• The Global Gender Gap Report, 2018, ranks India at 142 among 149 countries.
• Four parameters for measuring gender inequality are economic participation and
opportunity, health and survival, educational attainment and political empowerment.
• Gender wage gap is highest in India according ILO. women are paid 34% less than men.
• Women comprise over 42 per cent of the agricultural labour force in the country, yet they
own less than 2 percent of its farm land according to the India Human Development
Survey (IHDS).
• Caste:
• Caste is significant factor for determining access to resources like education, income,
health valued by individuals.
• India’s upper caste households earned nearly 47% more than the national average
annual household income, the top 10% within these castes owned 60% of the wealth
within the group in 2012, as per the World Inequality Database.
26. • Religion:
• Religious identities are significant for an individual’s ability to mobilize resources.
• Religious identities can cause prejudices which may lead to economic exclusion and
other forms of discrimination which can impact jobs and livelihood opportunities.
• While minorities such as Christians, Parsis and Jains have a larger share of
income/consumption than their population share, Muslim and Buddhist populations have
significantly lower access to economic resources.
• Ethnicity:
• Tribal communities in India have been identified as ethnic group on the basis of their
unique culture, language, dialect, geographical location, customs etc.
• The National Family Health Survey 2015-16 (NFHS-4) showed that 45.9% of ST
population were in the lowest wealth bracket as compared to 26.6% of SC population,
18.3% of OBCs, 9.7% of other castes.
27. Economic Inequality:
• The 2019 report by Oxfam, titled showed that India’s top 10% holds 77.4% of the
total national wealth, while the top 1% holds 51.53% of the wealth. The bottom
60% population holds only 4.8% of the national wealth.
• The Gini coefficient of wealth in India in 2017 is at 0.83, which puts India among
the countries with highest inequality countries.
• India added 17 new billionaires last year, raising the number to 101 billionaires.
• Indian billionaires’ wealth increased by INR 4891 billion —from INR 15,778
billion to over INR 20,676 billion. INR 4891 billion is sufficient to finance 85 per
cent of the all states' budget on Health and Education.
• In the last 12 months the wealth of this elite group increased by Rs 20,913
billion. This amount is equivalent to total budget of Central Government in 2017-
18.
• Only four women billionaires in India and three of them inherited family wealth
• Between 2018 till 2022, India is estimated to produce 70 new millionaires every
day. Number of billionaires has increased from only 9 in 2000 to 101 in 2017.
28. • 51 billionaires out of the total 101 are 65 years or above and own Rs 10,544 billion of
total wealth.
• If we assume that in the next 20 years, at least Rs 10,544 billion will be passed on to the
inheritors and on that if 30% inheritance tax is imposed, the Government can earn at
least Rs 3176 billion. Rs 3176 billion sufficient to finance 6 crucial services--Medical &
Public Health, Family Welfare, Water & Sanitation, Housing, Urban Development and
Labour & Labour Welfare in all States.
• It would take 941 years for a minimum wage worker in rural India to earn what the top
paid executive at a leading Indian garment company earns in a year.
• India's top 10% of population holds 73% of the wealth.
29. Consequences of Inequalities:
• Inequalities tend to produce social conflict among the social groups e.g.
caste groups like Jaats, Maratha, Patels are demanding reservations
• Inequalities among ethnic groups have led to various ethnic movements
demanding separate states or autonomous regions or even outright
secession from India.
• Religious inequality tends to generate feeling of exclusion among
religious minority groups. This reduces their participation in mainstream
• Poor development indicators like IMR, MMR, low per capita income, lower
education and learning outcomes at schools, high rate of population
growth can be traced to existing socio-economic inequalities.
• High economic inequality is detrimental to public healthcare and
education.
30. Measures to Deal with Inequalities
Constitutional Provision:
• Enforcement of Constitutional Guarantee of equality as enshrined in fundamental rights.
Articles 14, 15 and 16 form part of a scheme of the Constitutional Right to Equality.
Promoting Civil Society:
• Provide a greater voice to traditionally oppressed,suppressed groups and civil society
groups like unions and associations
• SC and ST should be motivated to become entrepreneurs, schemes like Stand up India
need to be expanded to widen its reach by increasing funding.
Women Empowerment:
• For gender equality policies like affirmative action by reserving seats in legislatures,
increasing reservation at Local self government both at Urban and village level to 50% in
all states, strict implementation of The Equal Remuneration act,1976 to remove wage
gap,
• making education curriculum gender sensitive, raising awareness about women right,
changing social norms through schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao etc.
31. Inclusion of Religious Minorities:
• Religious minority groups need special attention through representation in government
jobs, provision of institutional credit, improvement of their education access, protection of
their human rights by empowering National commission for Minority, strengthening rule
of law etc.
Economic Policies:
• By ensuring universal access to public funded high quality services like Public health and
education, social security benefits, employment guarantee schemes; inequality can be
reduced to great extent.
Employment Generation:
• The failure to grow manufacturing sectors is the important reason of rising inequalities.
• The Labor-intensive manufacturing has the potential to absorb millions of people who are
leaving farming while service sector tend to benefit majorly urban middle class.
32.
33. POVERTY:
• Poverty is the world at its worst when people are deprived of basic everyday
things that we take for granted like food,water shelter, money, and clothes
• What does poverty mean?
• lack of basic needs (food,cloth,shelter,electricity),basic transportation,good
health and medical infrstructure.
• Causes of poverty :
o Lack of education o Natural disasters
o Lack of money o No opportunities provided
o Over population
34. Effects of poverty
• Hunger & Malnutrition
• Limited access to quality health care
• Insufficient access to sanitary water
• Limited education
• High Mortality Rates.
• Increased health risks and
• perpetuation of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS and Malaria.
• Hampers children’s ability to grow & develop properly and contributes to a
cycle of poverty
• Inhibits education and social advancement
• Increase armed conflict
35. FACTS:
• 1.4 BILLION people in developing countries live on $1.25 or less
• 3 out of every 4 people live on less than $1.25 a day
• 22,000 children die every day due to poverty
• 8 MILLION people die from lack of food and nutrition – about 24,000
deaths each day
• 60% of world’s hungry are women
• Lack of proper maternal care results in 300,000 maternal deaths annually
• 1 out of 6 infants are born with a low birth rate in developing countries
• Malnutrition causes 1/3 of all child deaths resulting in 2.6MILLION deaths
per year
• Every 5 second a child dies of hunger related diseases
36. • 98% of the world’’s undernourished peoplle live in developing countries.
• 2/3 of the worlds hungry people live in just 7 countries: BANGLADESH,
CHINA, CONGO, ETHIOPIA, INDIA,INDONESIA and PAKISTAN.
• More than 11MILLION children die from preventable health issues such
as malaria, Diarrhoea and pneumonia.
• What is poverty line?
• The line which indicates level of purchasing power required to satisfy
minimum needs of a person.It represents the capacity to satisfy the
minimum level of human needs.
• it divides people into two categories:
• 1.Above poverty line 2.Below poverty line
37. TWO WAYS OF POVERTY:
RELATIVE POVERTY
• Under Relative poverty the
economic conditions of different
regions or countries is compared.
• The capita income and the
national income are the two
indicators of relative poverty.
• According to the UNO those
countries are treated poor whose
per capita income is less than US
$725 per annum.
ABSOLUTE POVERTY
• Absolute poverty refers to the
measure of poverty , keeping in
view the per capita intake of
calories and minimum level of
consumption .
• Per capita income :
(National income /Population)
38. MEASUREMENT OF POVERTY:
EXPENDITURE METHOD
• Under this the minimum food
requirements for survival is
estimated.
• The food value is converted into
calories.
• The caloric value of food is then
converted into the money value
i.e. in rupees.
• The total equivalent amount is
considered as the poverty line.
INCOME METHOD
• This method is used by the
government while distributing food
through PDS at the local level.
• Under this a poverty line is fixed
by the government.
• All the families whose total
income is less than the poverty
line fixed by the government are
considered as BPL.
39.
40. Environmental degradation:
• Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through
depletion of resources such as air ,water,and soil the destruction of
ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife.
• It can occur naturally or through human process.
• E g. ozone depletion ,destruction of marine environment .
• It affects:
1.Air
2.water
3.Land
41. Causes of environmental degradation:
• Industrial activities
• Population explosion
• Farm mechanization
• Pesticides and insecticides
• Felling of trees
• Urbanization and changing lifestyles
• Development projects
• Natural causes
42.
43. Impact of environmental degradation:
• Affect the human health
• Ozone depletion
• Acid rain
• Depletion of marine life
• Loss of biodiversity
• Pollution of ground water
• Soil erosion
• Air pollution
• Light pollution
• Desertification
• Global warming