Is India’s Inclusive Growth a ‘Chimera’ Essay - 646 Words

â€Å"The strategy of inclusive growth pursued by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has helped mitigate the widening social and economic disparities brought about by rapid economic growth.† – Dr. Manmohan Singh on ‘Inclusive growth’. ‘India shining’ has been the political slogan for India since the turn of the new millennium, and rapid economic growth over the last decade enunciated the saga of India rising. However, our â€Å"tryst with destiny† has been a mysterious journey of a struggle with poverty and illiteracy. Every day as millions of English-speaking educated youths chase their ‘big Indian dreams’, millions more continue their fight for survival. The ruling parties boast of our 7-8% economic growth, continuing†¦show more content†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¢ Overall, U.N.D.P.’s report of 2011 is a clear indicator of India’s failure on the social front. India ranks a low 134th in the list of 187 countries. †¢ At the other extreme, India is home to over 126,700 super rich (assets over $ 1 million), and 2.5% of the rural household owns the 30% of land in the ‘Socialist Republic of India’. This clearly signifies the sustained high growth rate. However, failure in raising social and economic development reflects the myopic vision of policy makers who stress the importance of growth statistics over equity and use the phrase ‘inclusive growth’ merely for political interest. Post-liberalization India has followed the mixed economy model with capitalist inclination, and this invalidates a people-oriented development. The path of ‘inclusive growth’ that the Indian economy is supposedly following presents a cocktail of mystery, wonder and despair, one which leaves even the stalwarts bewildered. The experiences from implementation of past policies tell us much of the road ahead in realizing the dream of a developed India, but so far, the journey to inclusiveness is inconclusive. â€Å"Growth, Development and Social sector: An Indian Perspective†, our broad theme for Y.E.S.M. this year, looks to explore the most relevant question for India’s development, â€Å"Should India invest more in its social sector to