Economic Challenges in India
Any discussion about space program cannot be devoid of
economics. More so, when we discuss about India's space program.
India is the tenth largest economy in the world in terms of nominal
GDP and third largest in terms of Purchasing[endnoteRef:1] Power
Parity . But when it comes to per capita income basis, India is
ranked 141 on nominal GDP and 130 on Purchasing Power parity in the
world. What does the data indicate ? It goes to show that there is
money in India but its distribution is not uniform leading to
severe class distinction between the rich and the poor. As the
saying goes, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. [1:
Wikipedia ]
This leads us to the issue of poverty in India. As per World
Bank's report, a third of India's population falls below the
international poverty line of US$1.25 (PPP) per day while 68.7% of
the people live at less than US $2 per day (PPP). As per the data
of 2013, one UN report stated that a third of the world's poorest
people live in India. Let us simply compare these percentages in
terms of a billion people. The number is staggering and worrisome.
For the poor in India, a myriad problems need to be solved. Some
are directly related to money and others indirectly. Let us try and
put ourselves in the position of a sole bread winner of a family
surviving below poverty line. Our principle problem is arranging
sufficient food and health care for every member of the family.
Even before this problem ends, we ought to consider the problem of
sanitation, cleanliness, shelter, clothing, education of our kids
etc. To manage and solve these fundamental problems, we need to
think about livelihood. Which again is not so easy as considerable
number of impoverished people are vying for the same job as us. A
third of India's population is reeling under similar problems and
50% of the remaining two thirds is not much better off either. It
is also pertinent to bear in mind that this class of poverty cannot
be alleviated by creating skill and knowledge intensive jobs as the
prerequisites of training and education have not been met for this
section of society. There are many other ills in the society which
sometimes, are indirectly linked to economic considerations. For
instance female foeticide is strongly linked to the poor people, as
they consider raising a girl child a dead investment with nor
returns quite unlike a boy child who they assume to be their
retirement plan. Another off shoot of poverty is the Dowry system
in India. Where a huge sum of money is paid to the groom by bride's
parents during marriage. A common man's problem is never his own
problem because a common man represents a large section of the
society he lives in. Almost logically, the common man's problem
becomes the problem of the Government for they are the caretakers
of the society. Naturally, the onus of solving malnutrition, food
security issues, sanitation, shelter and various other direct and
indirect problems fall the Government. In case of Government of
India, making policies and allocation of funds alone is not
sufficient enough to solve problems. They also need to bear the
brunt of considerable implementation cost owing to large population
and challenging geographical expanse. Some of the problems
mentioned above are , in our opinion, the most pressing economic
challenges in India.
