India: Shining or Whining?

23 May 2007

Professor Bibek Debroy

India has registered nine per cent and higher GDP growth rates for three years in succession. But is this growth real and is it sustainable? Has there been a structural change in the economy or is it cyclical? If there has been structural change, what are the reasons behind it?

In this lecture, Professor Bibek Debroy explores whether growth has been pro-rich or beneficial to the poor; what poverty figures show, and what role inequality has played. He asks why Indian agriculture not been growing fast enough, consider problems with employment generation, and teases out what the geographical divide can tell us. Finally, he asks what policy interventions can do to bridge this divide, outlining the pending agenda of reforms.

Broad Topics: Asia and the Pacific

Sub-topics: Economics

Areas: ANU College of Asia and the Pacific

Professor Debroy's research interests have covered economic theory, empirical work on the Indian economy, international trade issues, law reform and the political economy of reform in India. Before serving as Secretary General, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Northern India, Professor Debroy was Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies, New Delhi, between 1997 and 2005. He was also the Director of LARGE (Legal Adjustments and Reforms for Globalising the Economy), which was set up by the UNDP and Ministry of Finance, Government of India. Mr. Debroy is the author of several books, papers and popular articles, and is a contributing editor with the Indian Express newspaper.