Development experience in Indian economy: inter-state perspectives

Given the fact that India is a large continental economy, the development process has to take account of the regional implications of growth and structural changes in the economy. It is obvious that such a vast country would have diversities in terms of resource endowments, manpower development, institutional framework, governance and various such other parameters of development. While it is not possible to expect uniformity in the growth rates of the different regions of the economy it would be desirable to design the development path in such a way that there is some sort of harmony in the rates and patterns of growth in the different regions of the economy. Even though the initial conditions in the different States are different, the development process should not end up in increasing the inter regional disparities but it should result in bringing about reduction in the disparities and increasing homogeneity in the growth path of the different regions. The present volumes deals with the different aspects of the inter-State perspectives. of the development experiences in the Indian. economy.

There is a wide divergence among the different regions of the economy in regard to fiscal policies, agro-climatic conditions, food habits, human development, environmental issues, incidence of poverty, etc. At the same time there is growing inter-dependence among the different regions in view of the expansion of infrastructural facilities such as transport and telecommunications, and movement of capital and human resources. Widening disparities in the different regions could be detrimental to the process of realising maximum potential growth for the economy as a whole. Further, widening of disparities could also be a source for inter-regional migration and social and political tensions. The contributions by different experts in the volume bring out these various issues in sharp focus with a view to facilitating further analytical debate and necessary policy actions in this important field.