Indian Economy

According to IMF's World Economic Outlook, April 2018, India's GDP touched $ 2.6 trillion in 2017 making India the world's sixth largest economy in the world after USA, China, Japan, Germany and UK. In terms of purchasing power parity, it is the third largest economy in the world. In some of the recent years, India was the fastest growing major economy in the world and is expected to remain so in 2018 and 2019 as well (with rate of growth projected at 7.4 per cent in 2018 and 7.9 per cent in 2019 in the above mentioned Report). These are all encouraging signs. However, in terms of per capita GDP, India lags considerably behind the developed countries and a large number of developing countries. Accordingly, the standard of living of the masses is appallingly low and levels of poverty, malnutrition and undernutrition are very high. While estimates of poverty are available only upto 2011-12 and have not been updated in recent years, indications are that poverty levels are very high as data on income inequalities amply demonstrate. For instance, while the share of the top 1 per cent in country's wealth was as high as 58.4 per cent in 2016, the bottom half of the population owned a mere 2.1 per cent of the country's wealth in that years. Moreover, one out of every seven persons in India is undernourished, 38.4 per cent of children under the age of five are stunted and 21 per cent of children under the age of five are wasted. It is distressing to know that India is home to the highest number of hungry people in the world – almost one-fourth of the world's hungry live in India. Not only this, the levels of unemployment and underemployment continue to be very high and high economic growth during recent years has been mostly jobless.

As in the case of the earlier editions, in this edition also, we critically analyse the performance of the Indian economy over the years, discuss the problems confronting the different sectors, and carry out a threadbase evaluation of the different programmes being undertaken by the government in considerable detail. We also examine the opportunities and challenges facing the Indian economy in the new emerging global environment. This edition also carries out some innovations. For instance, on persistent demand from our esteemed readers, we have introduced a new section explaining the concepts and terms used in the book (see 'Definition of Terms Used in the Book' after Preface and Contents). A discussion on ‘Union Budget 2018-19' has also been included. 'Snapshot of the Indian Economy' presents useful economic information about India in a consolidated form for the benefit of readers.