Noting that the turning point in economic growth since Independence was the early 1980s and not not 1991 as perceived, noted economist and National Knowledge Commission Member Deepak Nayyar has observed that China would emerge as world factory and India with its knowledge power, the world office.
"The turning point in early 1950s was much more significant than the structural break achieved in early 1980s. In any case, 1991 was not a watershed, he said, delivering a lecture here last night on 'Lumbering elephant or running tiger? Independent India, half a century later,' organised by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies.
He said: thus it is not possible to attribute the turnaround in India's growth performance to economic liberalisation", Prof Nayyar, former Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious Jawharlal Nehru University, New Delhi said.
Economic growth in India was respectable during the period 1950-1980, equal to many industrialised countries and much better than many Developing country. But this was not enough, he noted.
The real failure throughout the second-half of the 20th Century, was that the country failed to transform its economic growth into social development, which would have brought about an improvement in the living conditions of the masses, resulting in a "two worlds-India" of the haves and the have nots, said Prof Nayyar, a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation observed that globalisation provided opportunities to a few, but only threats to many in the country.
Even while integrating India with the global economy, the vulnerable sections had to be safeguarded and the market should be regulated to be "people-friendly" as the Government was accountable to the people and not market.
India's unfinished journey in development would be incomplete so long as poverty, deprivation and exclusion persisted, he pointed out, adding while economic growth was essential, it could not be sufficient.
He said: "It is neither feasible nor desirable to separate economic growth from distributional outcomes because they are inextricably linked to each other. This link is provided by employment creation. Jobless growth is not sustainable either in economics or in politics. If we create employment, it will only reinforce economic growth through a virtuous circle of cumulative causation."
Stressing the critical role of the government, he said: "It is not less government but a transparent and accountable government."
He expressed optimisim about the future given the deeply-embedded political democracy in the country, which despite flaws, provided not only checks and balances but also early-warnings and alarm bells.
