India : Sustaining Reform, Reducing Poverty
The report analyzes India's continued good progress in increasing incomes, and improving living standards over the past decade, which after the setback associated with the 1991 balance of payments crisis, economic growth picked up, income pove...
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| Format: | Development Policy Review (DPR) |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC
2013
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2003/07/2444337/india-sustaining-reform-reducing-poverty http://hdl.handle.net/10986/14617 |
| Summary: | The report analyzes India's
continued good progress in increasing incomes, and improving
living standards over the past decade, which after the
setback associated with the 1991 balance of payments crisis,
economic growth picked up, income poverty continued to
decline, and many social indicators, in particular literacy,
continued to improve. Likewise, there has been an opening to
private activity, trade policy and the exchange rate regime
have been further liberalized, and capital markets have been
reformed, leading to an improved investment climate.
Nonetheless, development progress has been steady, but
uneven, while in addition, the recent growth deceleration
was accompanied by a slowdown in investment, especially in
the private sector. The fiscal position of the general
government has now also deteriorated, with a rising budget
deficit, the result of a significant increase in government
consumption, and continued low revenue mobilization. But at
the same time, prudent monetary policy has helped contain
inflation, and strengthen the balance of payments. Based on
this analysis, fiscal reforms are needed in taxation,
financial, social, as well as for fiscal management. The
report also reviews the delivery of public services, showing
the need to access effective social safety nets, i.e.,
social services that require increasing the level, but more
importantly the quality of public expenditures in these
areas. This in turn requires improving the governance and
productivity of India's civil service, and the pressing
problem of affordability. An effective program of civil
service reform should include measures to achieve the
following three objectives: improve access to information;
strengthen accountability; and, reduce political
interference. Of special concern, are the weaknesses in the
service delivery of social sectors: education, health and
social safety nets, and, it has been argued that
decentralization, and local empowerment will ultimately
improve the quality of service delivery at the village
level. To this end, the report suggests improving the
investment climate, with a special look at infrastructure
development, while promoting rapid agricultural, and rural
growth given its importance in the socioeconomic, and
political fabric of India, through productivity-enhancing
investments. Continued progress on poverty reduction will
require a major push to reinvigorate the reform agenda. |
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