Question

describe the problems faced by india for trying to be a developed country.

Answer 1

First, one thing that many people from the developed countries do not appreciate is that in general, the developing countries of today have much higher HDI than the developing countries of 19th or 20th century. Thus, many of the challenges in developing countries are very similar to those in the developed countries.

Unemployment is one of the largest problems facing countries like India, which also simultaneously suffers from lack of adequate skilled or semi-skilled personnel to cater to its industries. There is a huge opportunity in vocational training and education.

There are going to be more graduates in the next few decades in the world than there were ever in history. Will industry be able to create enough jobs to employ so many graduates, given increasing levels of automation? Looks difficult.

Manufacturing in the name of “Make in India” is being pushed by the government as The Next Big Thing. However, employment in manufacturing sector in China peaked in 1995[1]. Anybody who has read books like BOLD[2]knows that automation has improved the productivity so much that not many employees will be required. 3D printing is a huge threat to employment in the sector in the the future. There will be new jobs in this sector but there will also be many layoffs. Even then Indians are being served the kool-aid of crores of jobs coming from manufacturing.

Thus, there is a need of a complete overhaul of employment generation planning and action; and this is a universal problem, not restricted to only the developing countries but the developed ones too. The difference is that there is often very small or no social security in developing countries.

Despite the high growth rate, there are some worrying trends in India[3]:

slowdown in agriculture, which employs many more people than any other sector,slowing job growth,people shifting out of agriculture but to other low productivity occupations that provide low compensation.

As a remedy, diverse sectors having the potential of exponential job growth like tourism and housing should be encouraged. Governments must promote entrepreneurship much more. Young people must be trained to be self-employed.

This brings to light the next big problem, i.e., of lack of entrepreneurial infrastructure. Entrepreneurs are faced with smaller markets, risk-averse businesses, clients and family members, less-than-ideal social and physical infrastructure, and governmental red-tapism. An example is that governments can do well to provide broadband access to all at a subsidized or zero cost, and recover that cost via taxes on software sales over the broadband. No private player can or is allowed to do so. This will lead to growth in knowledge-based jobs.

The modern financial system catered almost exclusively to risk-averse and the rich, rather than entrepreneurs and the poor. This discouraged entrepreneurship among small farmers and laborers and led to exploitation from local money-lenders and touts. The village moneylenders and not institutional lenders still continue to provide the major share of loans, which is worrying. Things seem to improving but very slowly, in part via social micro-lending. Governments too are playing their part; thus rural sectors today have an improving access to credit.

Another major challenge facing many developing countries is corruption. Nepotism, criminality and bribery do not allow efficient utilization of resources. Huge amount of corporate funding is used for huge advertisements and these are successful too in winning elections. Elected representatives care first and most about their own preservation and well-being, and of their corporate funders, rather than saving their constituencies from possible dangers, or improvement of living conditions of all.

Ecological issues are slowly beginning to turn centerstage. In particular, continuous access to drinking water is a huge challenge.

Public health and education are of utmost importance, not only for welfare of the citizens but also to restrict the population growth rate which is one of the highest in the world. India adds to its population every year the equivalent of Australia’s population. In terms of life expectancy, India in 2017 is where China was in 1980s. Since then China massively increased its spending on these two sectors. However, in India the very worrying trend is the abysmal spending by almost all the state governments and the central governments now and in the past over health and education sectors.