Welcome to BoP Program - Indian Economy

As India is on the road to becoming an economic superpower, it must expedite socio-economic reforms and take steps for overcoming institutional and infrastructure bottlenecks inherent in the system. Availability of both physical and social infrastructure is central to sustainable economic growth.

Since independence Indian economy has strived hard to improve its pace of development. Notably in the past few years the cities in India have undergone tremendous infrastructure upgradation. But this is not the case in most parts of rural India. Similarly in the areas of health, education and other human development indicators India's performance has been far from satisfactory, showing a wide range of regional inequalities with urban areas getting most of the benefits. In order to attain this status and build an egalitarian society, appropriate measures need to be taken. Currently the Indian economy is facing these challenges :

Sustaining the growth momentum and achieving an annual average growth of 7-8 % in the next five years.

Simplifying procedures and relaxing entry barriers for business activities.
Checking the growth of population; India is the second highest populated country in the world after China. However in terms of density India exceeds China as India's land area is almost half of China's total land. Due to a high population growth, GNI per capita remains very poor. It was only $ 2880 in 2003 (World Bank figures).
Boosting agricultural growth through diversification and development of agro processing.
Expanding industry fast, by at least 10% per year to integrate not only the surplus labour in agriculture but also the unprecedented number of women and teenagers joining the labour force every year.
Developing world-class infrastructure for sustaining growth in all the sectors of the economy.
Allowing foreign investment in more areas.
Effecting fiscal consolidation and eliminating the revenue deficit through revenue enhancement and expenditure management.
Empowering the population through universal education and health care. India needs to improve its HDI rank, as at 127 it is way below many other developing countries' performance. The UPA government is committed to furtering economic reforms and developing basic infrastructure to improve lives of the rural poor and boost economic performance. Government had reduced its controls on foreign trade and investment in some areas and has indicated more liberalization in civil aviation, telecom and insurance sector in the future.