Industry-Led Growth: Issues and Facts
India emancipated from the prolonged phase of conservative Hindu rate of growth almost a quarter century back. However, given its vast labour supplies the labour demand, particularly for those who are less skilled and poorly endowed with human capital, ha
- PDF / 527,684 Bytes
- 67 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 47 Downloads / 191 Views
1 Introduction India emancipated from the prolonged phase of conservative Hindu rate of growth almost a quarter century back. However, given its vast labour supplies the labour demand, particularly for those who are less skilled and poorly endowed with human capital, has been growing sluggishly. To be specific, whether economic growth is able to generate employment opportunities on a large scale, particularly for the unskilled, semi-skilled and the less-educated labour force, is an important question that has been bothering the development economists since long. Second, what impact the economic reforms in various sectors have made on the employment front is another important aspect that needs a thorough investigation. Accordingly, the future strategy has to be developed and sectors and policies that hold potentiality and prospects for employment growth need to be identified. After all, for economic growth to be inclusive or pro-poor, productive employment generation has to take place in a significant way. It has been widely noted that growth alone is not sufficient to bring in any major improvement in economic and social wellbeing, particularly of those who are located at the lower echelons of the socio-economic ladder. Rapid growth in productive employment opportunities can distribute the benefits of growth among the deprived lot. In other words, employment growth at wages higher than the minimum subsistence level of consumption is crucial for poverty reduction and also to create a stable society that would be free from social turmoil and insurgency. From the historical experience of the present day developed nations, we note that one important determinant of economic growth is industrialization. The role of industry is crucial in generating high-productivity employment and enhancing the standard of living of the population. In the process of development, there takes place a structural shift both in the value added and work force composition away from the primary sector first towards the secondary and later towards the tertiary sector. This structural change is accompanied not only by a rise in per capita © The Author(s) 2016 A. Mitra, Industry-Led Growth, SpringerBriefs in Economics, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-0009-6_1
1
2
Industry-Led Growth: Issues and Facts
income but also improvement in many other development indicators. It involves upward mobility of individual occupations and incomes and a shift in rural-urban composition of the population (Kuznets 1966). However, in the Indian context, the share of manufacturing in the total work force has been dwindling at a low level of 11 % or so even after experiencing rapid economic growth in last several years. Szirmai and Verspagen (2011), in the context of developing countries, point out that manufacturing since 1990 is becoming a more difficult route to growth than before. They also find interesting interaction effects of manufacturing with education and income gaps. Dellas and Koubi (2001) argue that the industrialization of labour is the main engine of growth during th
Data Loading...
