Making Growth Happen in India
A Road Map for Policy Success
- V. Kumaraswamy - Columnist, Business Line and Business Standard
For India’s economic reforms policy to succeed, its programmes should be firmly anchored in the reality of the social and micro-institutional context—something our policy makers often regrettably ignore.
To break out of 8 or 9 per cent growth rates, we need more appropriate skill sets, development of proper attitudinal infrastructure, increased capital productivity, a more optimal savings rate and deliberate creation of socially productive market structures in several areas such as healthcare, public distribution and higher education.
Employment is the best way to deliver growth to the vast multitude and reconcile the growth fixation of reformists and socialistic obsession with distribution. The book suggests several unconventional growth engines which can potentially deliver both and make 12 per cent growth rates realistically possible.
The book is aimed at people who aspire to take part, debate and shape our destiny but may not have the time for deeper research or patience with economic jargons.
The book gives a fresh insight into several aspects that have a huge relevance at the moment. What is creditworthy is the lucid way in which the author handles these issues. For example on the NREGA issue, he gives a nice example of how ‘NREGA is like giving excessive grace marks to a student who keeps failing his exams repeatedly’. This is an interesting take on the subject and I doubt whether any economist, whatever be their ideological leanings, will disapprove this. Mr Kumarswamy’s agenda and blueprint for 12 per cent growth is just the potion India needs at this hour to reach the heights we all aspire to.
Mr Kumaraswamy has applied his deep knowledge of consumer behaviour, developmental issues and programmes to come up with a suitable design for accelerating our growth. If India is to rightfully claim its place amongst the world’s leading economic powers and provide employment opportunities to its citizens, its policy makers would do well to seriously consider the author’s proposals.
The book blends data, anecdotes and analysis in a way that makes it both insightful and interesting—a combination rare in books on Indian economy.
There is no doubt that a well-implemented good strategy is better than a perfect strategy that is poorly implemented. Mr Kumaraswamy’s book provides a very refreshing non-economist’s perspective into the design and delivery of economic programmes rather than focussing on the relevance of reforms as a fundamental economic strategy. In doing so, it seeks to search for ways to improve their effectiveness and suggests new programmes aimed at enhancing the country’s growth rates.
This is an important book, written with a fresh perspective on the vital issues facing the country. Even though Kumaraswamy claims to be a non-economist, he has sufficient insights into the broad economics behind significant policy decisions to warrant a close reading by the policy makers and implementers. A must read for every Indian interested in the future of the country.
Mr Kumaraswamy’s insights into the drivers of change in India need to be widely absorbed. A timeless book at a strategic inflection point when India will certainly get rerated.
For a non-specialist, the book serves as an exciting entry point for an otherwise dull and purely academic world of macroeconomic policy debate. For the expert, it could provide an unconventional perspective.
A surprisingly insightful book on a subject — India’s reforms experience...the book belongs to a ‘centrist’ genre that favours the reforms process but acknowledges its serious drawbacks.
