Growth and Structural Change in the Indian Economy
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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We present below the rates of growth
of GDP for each of the decades and for
the half century gone by in the following
table.
From Table, we notice that
the rate of growth for the whole duration
is conclusively more than 4 per cent per
annum.
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The rate of growth got depressed
in seventies but has definitely improved
during the eighties and nineties.
Presently, it can be safely accepted that
the rate of growth is close to six per cent
per annum. Some credit can be given to
the policies adopted in the eighties and
nineties on the growth front but credit
should also be given to the base created
during the fifties, sixties and seventies,
which helped change the productivity
of the agricultural economy and
diversification of the industrial economy
of the country.
Growth of Per Capita Income
Per capita income is the ratio of net
national product to the (mid-year) size
of population. Net national product is
likely to follow the pattern of gross
domestic product, as the component of
net factor income from abroad is small
in comparison to the total. Population
has been secularly rising in the last fifty
years though, of late, the rate of growth
of population has started declining. We
can remember that, in the case of
population, we have only decennial
figures and, therefore, can calculate only
a single rate of growth of population.
Using this technique, population size for
each mid-year is interpolated. Dividing
net national product by the size of
population, per capita income is
calculated. Annual per capita
income has risen a little less than three
times from a little less than Rs 3,700 in
1950-51 to over Rs10,000 in 2000-01,
at constant prices of 1993-94. In none
of the years shown here, there is a
decline over the year in the previous row.
But, one can notice that there is hardly
any rise in 1965-66 over 1960-61, that
is, after a gap of five years. Generally,
there is some rise in normal years. It
means that 1965-66 was a particularly
bad year. In fact, 1965-66 and 1966-67
were years of severe drought, though
they gave us green revolution.
However, with a view to giving you
an idea about the wider fluctuations in
case of per capita income, we give
here the graphical presentation.
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AKHAND PRATAP SINGH
