An agenda for next government

India's growth model needs a serious course correction

- AJAY CHHIBBER

The venerable industrialist J RD Tata, to the surprise of many, had said: "I don't want India to be an Economic Super-Power, I want it to be a Happy Country." The World Happiness Report 2024 ranks India 126th out of 143 countries not a very happy country. Ironically, India most likely will be an economic superpower. Well before the end of this decade India's gross domestic product (GDP), growing at over 7 per cent, is expected to overtake Germany's and Japan's to become the world's third-largest. And if it does reach the gross national income (GNI) per capita of around $14,000 at 2021 prices. the World Bank's cutoff to become a high-income country by 2047 it will be a $21 trillion economy, about the size of the United States (US) today and certainly an economic power.

But income alone does not make people happier. The world's richest country, the US, whose credo is "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", dropped to 23rd on the happiness rankings. To be happier India needs to not just increase GDP but have better education and health, and better jobs and less inequality, along with social cohesion. The United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP's) human development index (HDI) measures income, health (life expectancy), and education (literacy and schooling), and shows India's rank is a low 132nd amongst 190 countries. Public-health spending despite the pandemic shock remains at a low 1.3 per cent of GDP. Education public spending has increased to about 5 per cent of GDP and more children including girls go to school. But learning is poor and most of the youth remain unskilled and cannot do basic functions.