Idea Generation

Slow Economic Progress Of India

The reasons for the slow economic progress of India can be classified under the following five heads:

1. Social Causes

2. Administrative Causes

3. Economic Causes

4. Political Causes

5. Technological Causes

All these causes have been discussed in detail as follows:

SOCIAL CAUSES

1. Religious Bigotry And Communal Violence: The communal violence and fundamentalism related violence leads to the draining of the resources of the nation as the government has to spend extra on the security of the nation. Also the violence leads to the loss of man and material resources, which slows down the economic progress.

2. Caste & Creed Distinction: The cast and creed distinction breeds discontent and enmity in the country, which results in economic disparity as well as the backwardness of some of the social groups.

3. Illiteracy: Illiteracy is one of the major causes of economic backwardness of the nation as illiterate people are not able to make their ends meet which leads to their low economic standards as well as slowing down of the economy.

4. Lack of basic amenities: lack of basic amenities like water, sewage, electricity etc. leads to poor hygiene conditions which results in poor overall health levels of the nation.

5. Overpopulation: Overpopulation puts extra strain on the limited resources of the nation, which results in poverty and low per capita income.

6. Terrorism: Terrorism also results in extra burden on the national resources as government has to deploy extra resources for the national security and protecting the assets of the nation.

ADMINISTRATIVE CAUSES

1. Aid does not reach the poorer sections of society: Due to inefficient government departments the real benefits of the government spending doesn't reach the poor people and due to which they remain backward.

2. Excessive Bureaucracy: Due to excessive laws and guidelines and innumerable permissions and licenses required, the progress of the nation is slowed down.

3. Corruption: India is one of the highly corrupt countries and there is corruption in all the government departments, which negates and slows down the economic development.

4. Misallocation of resources: Due to the democratic compulsions the government sometimes has to act in favor of popular measures and hence the resources of the nation are diverted from the core development areas to the unproductive areas. This is mainly done to garner votes and without any economic justification.

5. Unfriendly labor laws: The ancient labor laws of India prevent the companies from hiring and firing as per demand. This creates apprehensions in the minds of big MNC's who want to expand in India and hence slows down the progress.

ECONOMIC CAUSES

1. Poor Infrastructure: The infrastructure of the country like roads, airports, ports, etc are too outdated in today's modern world and is the single most important factor for the slow economic progress of the country. Extensive efforts needs to be made in this area to make India globally competitive.

2. Impractical Education Structure: The Indian education system is not geared towards vocational education. It doesn't produce many technicians, which are the backbone of a growing economy.

3. Low Average GDP: The GDP of India is very low as compared to the size of the nation.

4. Unemployment : The unemployment of the nation is huge if we take into consideration the large number of people who are involved in unproductive activities.(Functional unemployment)

5. Poverty : A large proportion of India's population is still below the poverty