CUTS-NCAER
Public lecture
“Prospects for the Indian Economy: Curbing Poverty and Boosting Growth”
by
Kaushik Basu
C. Marks Professor of
International Studies and Professor of Economics,
Cornell University
Date: August 2, 2004
Venue:
NCAER Auditorium, 11 Indraprastha Estate,
New Delhi-02.
Time:
1700 to 1930
Summary of Proceedings
CUTS and NCAER organized a public
lecture by Dr. Kaushik Basu
on Monday August 2, 2004 at
the NCAER Auditorium. Kaushik Basu,
C. Marks Professor of International Studies and Professor of Economics at
Cornell University spoke on the topic, “Prospects for the Indian Economy:
Curbing Poverty and Boosting Growth” before an audience that comprised a mix of
bureaucrats, academicians, representatives of foreign missions, funding agencies
and the media. Dr. Montek S. Ahluwalia,
Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission of India was present as the Chief
Guest for the occasion. Mr. Pradeep S. Mehta, Secretary General of CUTS and Dr.
Suman K. Bery, Director
General of NCAER welcomed all the members of the audience and thanked everyone
for having braved the rains to attend the lecture. As was spelt out in the
schedule of the proceedings, the lecture was followed
by a discussion of the salient points by Dr. George Assaf,
Regional Director of UNIDO.
Dr. Basu started his lecture by reviewing the opportunities
that presently lay in front of India in the wake of a sustaining growth rate of
6% and thereabouts. He emphasized that the opportunities should ideally
facilitate the process of framing policies aiming at improving the living
conditions of the poorest of the poor, i.e. the bottom most section of the
society. On this aspect he drew reference of his experience of having witnessed
the difference that ‘direct actions’ at the grass roots can achieve, and hence
reiterated the importance of the same to achieve overall community development.
In this regard he extolled the role of various
voluntary organizations attempting to empower people at the community level.
Professor Basu opined that the approach of studying poverty in India
by looking at the ‘poverty line’ needed to be revisited.
In this regard he prescribed that economists/policy
makers in the country should resort to studying ‘deep poverty’ in our country
and look at the plight of that section of the population. This, according to
the proficient scholar implied studying the economic growth of 20% of the
bottom-most section of the population. For this, however, he submitted that
scarcity of data would be the first major hurdle to overcome. An interesting
case projected by the professor, was on the poor peoples’ access to formal
credit in Orissa. The case demonstrated that poor
people had to wait for longer periods to receive loans from authorities.
General lack of
awareness at the grass-root level with regards to IPRs and faulty policies that hindered business
establishment (in the organized sectors) were the two major areas of concern
for the expert development economist.
He cautioned
that while corporate India
was surging ahead and the country had been able to make a mark in the software
industry across the world, a section of our society still remained impoverished
and were susceptible to droughts, floods and malnourishment. Appropriate rules
and well-defined roles of the bureaucracy that help ensure proper functioning
of the market, he believed were the ‘nuts and bolts’ for the Indian economy.
Professor Basu contradicted the view of market
fundamentalists and criticized the ‘retreating policy’ of the government.
Sound economic
performance of a nation like India,
he felt was not independent of socio-cultural factor
and values. Corruption – a governance issue was chosen
for discussion. The experienced professor suggested a ‘pyramidal model’ of
monitoring corruption at the ground level. His suggestion was to engineer a
monitoring system where the degree of punishment would be proportional to the
level at which it is committed.
Dr. George Assaf, Representative and Regional Director of UNIDO added
that there was a need for the decision makers of the country to study – reasons
behind the discrepancies in the socio-economic profile between Indian states,
and socio-cultural factors impeding proper implementation of development programmes. Dr Assaf concluded
his observations by recommending that evolution of appropriate policy framework
for implementation of the NCMP was a challenge before the newly elected UPA
government.
Following the
lecture and discussion by the experts, there was an intensive interaction
between the speakers and members of the audience, who raised some pertinent
points like - the role of investment in
ensuring economic growth, relationship between administrative and political
reforms and the need for a strong watchdog movement.