India: reducing poverty, accelerating development

642 Pages·2000·3.03 MB·English

by  World Bank

India : Reducing Poverty, Accelerating
title:
Development World Bank Country Study
author:
publisher: World Bank
isbn10 | asin: 0821347756
print isbn13: 9780821347751
ebook isbn13: 9780585345512
language: English
Economic development--India, Poverty--
subject Economic aspects--India, India--Economic
conditions.
publication date: 2000
lcc: HC435.I63 2000eb
ddc: 338.954
Economic development--India, Poverty--
subject: Economic aspects--India, India--Economic
conditions.
Page i
India
Reducing Poverty, Accelerating Development
Page ii
The report was completed in December 1999. It does not include
developments and policy changes since then, such as the Union
Budget presented in February, the March amendment of the TRAI Act
and the EXIM policy of 1 April. The report uses GDP data available
at the time, the revised series of 30 June 1999. The 28 January Quick
Estimates of GDP revised the series back to 19934, reducing the
absolute level of GDP and changing the year-to-year growth rates. For
readers of this report, the revisions most obvious effects would be:
(a) to raise the ratios of the various variables to GDP shown in this
report by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points, and
(b) for 19989, to raise growth rate 6.8 per cent as compare to 6 per
cent in the earlier estimate.
Page iii
India
Reducing Poverty, Accelerating Development
The World Bank
Page iv
OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110001
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research,
scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Buenos Aires Calcutta
Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong
Istanbul
Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai
Nairobi Paris Sao Paolo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw
with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan
Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the
UK and in certain other countries
Published in India
By Oxford University Press, New Delhi
© Oxford University Press 2000
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
Database right Oxford University Press (maker)
First published 2000
Oxford University Press 2000
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University
Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the
appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning
reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the
Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and
you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
ISBN 0-8213-4775-6
The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included
in this publication and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any
consequence of their use. The boundaries, colours, denominations,
and other information shown on any map in this volume do not imply
on the part of the World Bank Group any judgement on the legal
status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such
boundaries.
Typeset in Garamond 10.5 on 12 by Excellent Laser Typesetters,
Delhi 110 034
Printed at Rashtriya Printers, Delhi 110 032
Published by Manzar Khan, Oxford University Press
YMCA Library Building, Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110 001
Page v
Acknowledgements
This Report was prepared by a team led by Sanjay Kathuria and James
Hanson. It was supported by a core team of Bank staff consisting of
Bala Bhaskar Naidu Kalimili, Priya Mathur, Harpinder Oberai, Farah
Zahir, Shahnaz Rana, Shunalini Sarkar, and Rita Soni. The Report
draws upon an interdisciplinary team, both from within the World
Bank and outside. For Chapter 1, Valerie Kozel and Stephen Howes
were primarily responsible; for Chapter 2, David Peters and Venita
Kaul; for Chapter 3, Fahrettin Yagci; for Chapter 4, Arindam Das-
Gupta; and for Chapter 5, Clive Harris. Other primary contributors
include: Deepak Ahluwalia (agriculture), Benoit Blarel (agriculture),
Carter Brandon (environment), Luis Constantino (decentralization),
Paramita Dasgupta (state finances, small savings, and general),
Gaurav Datt (poverty), Edward Heneveld (education), Monica Jain
(poverty), Bala Bhaskar Naidu Kalimili (macroeconomic projections,
growth analysis, and debt data management and analysis), Rajni
Khanna (contingent liabilities), David Marsden (decentralization),
Priya Mathur (environment and privatization), William McCarten
(state finances), Kari Nyman (energy), Harpinder Oberai (labour
markets, gender, and governance data management and analysis);
Gajanand Pathmanathan (agriculture), Garry Pursell (antidumping),
Salman Zaidi (poverty), Farah Zahir (governance, budgetary and
financial management, growth analysis, public enterprises, and central
and state fiscal data management and analysis).
Background papers for the review were prepared by O. P. Mathur
(decentralization), Shubhashish Gangopadhyay, Wilima Wadhwa, and
Bibek Debroy (judicial and civil service reforms), Omkar Goswami
(corporate governance), and CRISIL (public enterprises). The CII
conducted a survey of the business environment for 210 small and
large firms in all parts of India.
Apart from the very useful comments of the task team members, the
Report benefited from comments by Pedro Alba, Mukesh Ambani
(Reliance Industries), Alok Bansal, Bhavna Bhatia, Milan Brahmbatt,
Tim Callen (IMF), Shahrokh Fardoust, Edgardo Favaro, Keith
Hinchcliffe, Karin Kapadia, Homi Kharas, Sandeep Mahajan, Will
Martin, Smita Misra, Lucio Monari, Djamal Mostefai, Tawhid Nawaz,
Martin Rama, V. J. Ravishankar, Patricia Reynolds (IMF), Panneer
Selvam, Rajesh Sinha, Suresh Tendulkar, Christopher Towe (IMF),
Sanjay Vani, Maj-lis Voss, Michael Walton, John Williamson, J. P.
Wogart, and Adrian Wood. Peer reviewers were Kaushik Basu
(Cornell University and World Bank), Philip Keefer, Ashok Lahiri
(National Institute of Public Finance and Policy), Sanjay Pradhan, and
Helcio Tokeshi (on behalf of PREM Economic Policy). The Report
also benefited from the comments of the Quality Assurance Group
review team led by Gobind Nankani.
Data analysis and management were done by Bala Bhaskar Naidu
Kalimili, Priya Mathur, Harpinder Oberai, and Farah Zahir. Kanishka
Ghoshal helped with the states' database. Bita Hadjimichael did the
analysis of customs
Page vi
tariff data, while Mihir Pandey and Samiran Chakrabarti provided the
analysis on non-tariff barriers. The desktop publishing was done by
Shahnaz Rana, Shunalini Sarkar, and Rita Soni. Jillian Badami and
Naomi Dass provided logistical support. Priya Mathur and Harpinder
Oberai provided all-round contributions in getting the Report ready.
The Report was discussed with the Government of India on 10 August
1999. As the government emphasized, the longer term, strategic issues
for accelerating development and reducing poverty are critical for
India. Consequently, these issues are the focus of this report. The
World Bank would like to acknowledge the comments received at the
meeting as well as later, in writing, from the Ministries/Departments
of Agriculture, Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances,
Commerce, Consumer Affairs, Economic Affairs, Education, Family
Welfare, Food and Civil Supplies, Health, Labour, Personnel, Power,
Telecommunications, Social Justice and Empowerment, Statistics,
Water Affairs, and Women and Child Development. The Reserve
Bank of India also provided very valuable and extensive comments.
The World Bank is also grateful for the help rendered by various
government agencies, including the Reserve Bank of India, the
Department of Statistics, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of
Industry, and the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and
Statistics (DGCI&S).
Finally, we are very grateful to Oxford University Press for bringing
out this report in such a short time.
Page vii
Contents
List of Tables ix
List of Boxes x
List of Figures xi
List of Annexes xii
List of Annex Tables xiii
Abbreviations xv
Economic Development Data xviii
India Social Indicators xxi
Overview 1
Progress and Problems in Poverty Reduction 1
Potential Problems in Accelerating Poverty Reduction, 4
Sustaining Growth
A Second Wave of Reforms to Reduce Poverty Faster 6
Circumstances Propitious for Reforms and 8
Acceleration of Growth
Issues for Further Analysis 9
1 10
Poverty Reduction: Progress and Challenges
Overview 10
Poverty Reduction: The Long View from the 1950s to 11