CHARACTERISTICS OF INDIAN ECONOMY SINCE INDEPENDENCE

 Per capita income in India is estimated at 1,793 dollars (2011)  Macro measure of this low level is the level of per capita real final consumption expenditure  bulk of income is still being spent on food items as natural in a UDC  Per capita oil consumption (accepted as a criterion for level of living) is 0.6 barrels as against the world average of 4.5 barrels

 The top 10% of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10%, up from a ratio of six in the 1990s  Gini coefficient, the official measure of income inequality, has gone from 0.32 to 0.38, with 0 being the ideal score

 Provides employment to about two- thirds of total working population  Indicator of low economic development  Although things have improved as compared to independence

 India is gifted with large renewable and non renewable resources  Large part underutilized because of lack of capital or technical know how

 During , India’s population increased at an annual average rate of about 2.1% and currently at a rate of 1.6%  Absolute annual increase in India’s population is being estimated at about 17 million i.e. India is adding daily about 50,000 persons all through out the year.

 Labour surplus economy  The unemployment rate in India was last reported at 3.8 percent in 2010/11 fiscal year.  Historically, from 1983 until 2010, India Unemployment Rate averaged 8.1 Percent reaching an all time high of 9.4 Percent in December of 2009 and a record low of 6.0 Percent in December of (The unemployment rate can be defined as the number of people actively looking for a job as a percentage of the labour force.)

 High rate of illiteracy  74.04% people can read and write (2011) i.e. 296 million illiterates  India ranks 106 out of the 127 countries on Education for all development index (2005 global report)  In skilled areas like computer technology, situation is disastrous  The number of beds available over 1,000 million is only 9.10 lakh  Only 16 out of every 100 Indian households- a mere four in villages have first generation infrastructure facilities like safe drinking water, electricity and toilets.  About 20% of the population have no access to safe drinking water.  India has the distinction of the highest percentage of neonates who weigh less than the internationally accepted norm of 2.5 kg.

 Rate of technological growth; 0.7% to 1.1%  119 researchers per million population  Global Information technology report,2010, places India at 117 among 159 countries in the economies effectively using IT

 Singapore based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd.- India ranked 10th in financial system and 9 th in physical infrastructure (In scale of 0 to 10, 10 being worse)  Global competitiveness report by World Economic Forum 2011: India ranks 32 nd in a group of 59 countries in terms of growth competitiveness

 Mixture of traditional and modern  Large number of illiterates along with large number of IT professionals

 The structure of social relations is hierarchical and social cleavages are pronounced. Emphasis is not on Individual but rather upon family  Caste system  Nature is given more importance than human efforts  Corruption is rampant

 Presently India is fastest growing economy in the world (after China)  In terms of purchasing power parity, India had a per capita income of 3,260 $  In the changing demographics, India will have the largest pool of working population in the world.

 Self Reliance and minimal Dependence  Agricultural Transformation  Industrial changes  Changes in foreign trade  Improvement in Infrastructure  Expansion of science and technology  Social Changes