Publication: India : Reducing Poverty, Accelerating Development
Loading...
Date
2000
ISSN
Published
2000
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Reducing poverty, and providing for minimum needs, is the ultimate yardstick against which to measure development. To this end, the study outlines India's growth rate, improved social indicators, and poverty reduction since the 1970s, but specifies that, despite this progress, poverty is a serious concern, where social indicators remain below comparator countries. Human development is examined, focusing on social indicators, stating the delivery of health and education is fraught with limited accountability for performance and with low management capacity. Governance is critical to development, but the country's inadequate and adverse factors hinder the development of public administration, instead, performance incentives, and accountability within a downsized civil service, effective financial management, and decentralization should be pursued. Infrastructure should attract private investments, but the perverse impact of subsidies preclude the provision of private services. However, regulatory agencies are imperfect alternatives to competition, but corporatization would be an essential step in attracting the private sector. The study further reviews deregulation to increase trade growth and improve labor market flexibility. Conclusions call for reforms, arguing it would lead to higher growth, favorable balance of payments, and further capital inflows, including foreign direct investments.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2000. India : Reducing Poverty, Accelerating Development. World Bank Country Study;. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/15185 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication India : Policies to Reduce Poverty and Accelerate Sustainable Development(Washington, DC, 2000-01-31)This report is a pilot in the Bank's new approach to country economic reports, embodying the Comprehensive Development Framework. It begins with a chapter on reducing poverty, followed by a chapter on human development. Chapter 3 focuses on the Indian states, which are key actors in human development and infrastructure provision, as well as regulation and governance. Chapter 4 deals with governance issues, a major concern of the Bank because of its links to poverty reduction and development. The next three chapters deal with ways to increase growth and its poverty reducing content through improvements in a) infrastructure, b) the incentive and regulatory framework to encourage efficiency and labor demand, and c) the financial system and corporate governance. Chapter 8 deals with recent developments, the sustainability of growth and ways to reduce vulnerability to macroeconomic crises that hurt the poor. Finally, Chapter 9 provides a brief forecast of India's prospects and summarizes policies that would accelerate poverty reduction and sustained development. Gaps in the knowledge base and in country experience have been identified as issues deserving further analysis and research. The most important ones include: improving the delivery of social services to the poor; the links between growth, poverty reduction, and governance; and the nature, causes, and cures of urban poverty.Publication Moldova Public Expenditure Review : Capital Expenditures - Making Public Investment Work for Competitiveness and Inclusive Growth in Moldova(Washington, DC, 2013-06)This public expenditure review (PER) for Moldova is the result of a body of programmatic fiscal work. This PER focuses on capital expenditure. It supports the first pillar of the country partnership strategy (improving economic competitiveness) and complements the 2012 development policy operation. In the context of economic recovery and stabilization, government requested World Bank assistance in improving its capital allocation mechanism, as its fiscal consolidation program attempted to create space for critical infrastructure whilst gradually reducing the state's footprint in the economy. This report recommends ways to strengthen public investment processes, institutions, and sector policies to achieve better outcomes for public capital expenditures in Moldova. This report suggests reforms in public investment management and sector policies to raise cost-effectiveness and allocative efficiency of capital expenditures. Three key areas of reform are: (i) raise the quality of new projects by improving preliminary screening and project appraisal mechanisms; (ii) improve selection of new projects and ensure continuity of funding for ongoing projects through better prioritization and budgeting processes; and (iii) strengthen monitoring of project implementation for cost efficiency and timely delivery of public services. The report has four chapters. The first chapter presents the macroeconomic outlook and its implications for fiscal policy, particularly with respect to the capital budget. The second chapter presents the structure and classification of the capital budget as well as recent trends in capital expenditure levels and execution, and reviews the adequacy of resource allocations and utilization across sectors, given investment needs, national priorities and implementation capacity. The third chapter reviews public investment management processes and presents recommendations to improve the efficiency of public capital expenditure in Moldova. The fourth chapter discusses specific sector challenges and offers recommendations for improving capital expenditure outcomes.Publication Kazakhstan : Public Expenditure Review, Volume 2. Main Report(Washington, DC, 2000-06-27)The report is the public expenditure review for Kazakhstan, and builds upon previous work on the country's transition experience to a market-oriented economy, and of recent public sector reforms. It comprises three volumes, namely, the Summary Report, the Main Report, and Annexes and Statistical Appendix, aiming at identifying key public expenditure issues, suggesting also, possible strategies, and policy options. Although the country achieved significant progress in liberalizing, and stabilizing the economy, including implementing institutional reforms to discipline public expenditures, outstanding issues remain, particularly regarding the persistent fiscal imbalance, the deficient domestic resource mobilization management, unreliable expenditure prioritization, and inefficient budgetary execution. The report suggests strategy options, and policy reforms that should, through a programmed deficit reduction, attain fiscal sustainability. These options address: the rationalization of domestic resource mobilization, mainly oil/gas rents to preserve domestic savings, capital, and development of non-oil sectors; the need for governmental action on program priority, such as budgeting, and performance evaluation; strengthening intergovernmental relations, through improved fiscal decentralization, increased local accountability, and tax reforms; and, creating the initiative for private participation.Publication Toward Economic Diversification in Trinidad and Tobago(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-04)This paper contributes to the predominant diversification debate that has been ongoing in Trinidad and Tobago for more than three decades. The paper makes a determination of the key impediments to the country's attempts at diversification. Econometric techniques are applied on panel data to identify the most significant obstacles to economic diversification for a set of 183 countries. The results indicate that openness to foreign direct investment inflows is the most fundamental driver of diversification. The findings are then applied to the specific case of Trinidad and Tobago through a detailed analysis of the links in the trends followed by foreign direct investment and diversification between 1980 and 2011. Greater openness to foreign direct investment and improving the business climate appear to be key policies the twin-island republic could implement further in order to expand the range of activities of its economic structure.Publication Chile : New Economy Study, Volume 2. Background Documents(Washington, DC, 2004-02-18)The report comprises two volumes, the Executive Summary and Policy Recommendations (Volume 1), and the Background Documents (Volume 2), providing the scope, and organization of the study as follows. The first chapter assesses the performance of Chile in the knowledge economy, where knowledge is a critical factor for competitiveness and growth. It examines progress to date, and remaining challenges with respect to three factors - the knowledge variables: 1) the economic incentive and institutional regime; 2) science and technology; and, 3) the education system. The second chapter looks at Chile's Information and Communication Technology (ICT) - the infrastructure of the knowledge economy. The third chapter evaluates the potential use of ICT by local firms, with special focus on micro, small and medium businesses (MSMBs), which represent the bulk of the Chilean productive sector. The focus of the overall analysis is on the role of Knowledge in improving the productivity of the private sector. The study's main focus on improving productivity of the private, rather than the public sector, is motivated by the fact that a recent Bank Public Modernization loan, addresses key issues in improving the effectiveness, and efficiency of the Chilean public administration. It is highlighted that the recent growth of the Chilean economy, and positive short-term outlook, should not deter the Government from embarking on further reforms aimed at improving the productivity of the private sector. Chile may want to encourage microeconomic reforms supporting private sector development. Recommendations include the creation of innovative businesses, a single contact point for business registration, and a more flexible labor market, so as to reduce the costs of labor, increase employment, and that of firm's productivity. Moreover, the Government should review, and rationalize its programs in support of science, technology, and innovation, encouraging private participation in science, to ensure an adequate, relevant research, and, promote further reforms to improve the quality of education. Such policy agenda will require public-private partnerships to enhance productivity, and growth, which will require rethinking some economic principles.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Boom, Bust and Up Again? Evolution, Drivers and Impact of Commodity Prices: Implications for Indonesia(World Bank, Jakarta, 2010-12)Indonesia is one of the largest commodity exporters in the world, and given its mineral potential and expected commodity price trends, it could and should expand its leading position. Commodities accounted for one fourth of Indonesia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more than one fifth of total government revenue in 2007. The potential for further commodity growth is considerable. Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil in the world (export earnings totaled almost US$9 billion in 2007 and employment 3.8 million full-time jobs) and the sector has good growth prospects. It is also one of the countries with the largest mining potential in view of its second-largest copper reserves and third-largest coal and nickel reserves in the world. This report consists of seven chapters. The first six chapters present an examination and an analysis of the factors driving increased commodity prices, price forecasts, economic impact of commodity price increases, effective price stabilization policies, and insights from Indonesia's past growth experience. The final chapter draws on the findings of the previous chapters and suggests a development strategy for Indonesia in the context of high commodity prices. This section summarizes the contents of the chapters and their main findings.Publication World Development Report 2004(World Bank, 2003)Too often, services fail poor people in access, in quality, and in affordability. But the fact that there are striking examples where basic services such as water, sanitation, health, education, and electricity do work for poor people means that governments and citizens can do a better job of providing them. Learning from success and understanding the sources of failure, this year’s World Development Report, argues that services can be improved by putting poor people at the center of service provision. How? By enabling the poor to monitor and discipline service providers, by amplifying their voice in policymaking, and by strengthening the incentives for providers to serve the poor. Freedom from illness and freedom from illiteracy are two of the most important ways poor people can escape from poverty. To achieve these goals, economic growth and financial resources are of course necessary, but they are not enough. The World Development Report provides a practical framework for making the services that contribute to human development work for poor people. With this framework, citizens, governments, and donors can take action and accelerate progress toward the common objective of poverty reduction, as specified in the Millennium Development Goals.Publication Impact Evaluation in Practice, Second Edition(Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank, 2016-09-13)The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.Publication World Development Report 2009(World Bank, 2009)Places do well when they promote transformations along the dimensions of economic geography: higher densities as cities grow; shorter distances as workers and businesses migrate closer to density; and fewer divisions as nations lower their economic borders and enter world markets to take advantage of scale and trade in specialized products. World Development Report 2009 concludes that the transformations along these three dimensions density, distance, and division are essential for development and should be encouraged. The conclusion is controversial. Slum-dwellers now number a billion, but the rush to cities continues. A billion people live in lagging areas of developing nations, remote from globalizations many benefits. And poverty and high mortality persist among the world’s bottom billion, trapped without access to global markets, even as others grow more prosperous and live ever longer lives. Concern for these three intersecting billions often comes with the prescription that growth must be spatially balanced. This report has a different message: economic growth will be unbalanced. To try to spread it out is to discourage it to fight prosperity, not poverty. But development can still be inclusive, even for people who start their lives distant from dense economic activity. For growth to be rapid and shared, governments must promote economic integration, the pivotal concept, as this report argues, in the policy debates on urbanization, territorial development, and regional integration. Instead, all three debates overemphasize place-based interventions. Reshaping Economic Geography reframes these debates to include all the instruments of integration spatially blind institutions, spatially connective infrastructure, and spatially targeted interventions. By calibrating the blend of these instruments, today’s developers can reshape their economic geography. If they do this well, their growth will still be unbalanced, but their development will be inclusive.Publication Poverty Reduction in Indonesia : Constructing a New Strategy(Washington, DC, 2001-10-29)The objective of the report is to point at the need for a new poverty strategy, and the areas of action it should cover, where each area should be specifically discussed, addressing the lives of Indonesia's poor, and the tradeoffs policymakers will need to consider, based on the belief that this poverty strategy should emerge from a broad dialogue among stakeholders. First, in broadening poverty, the report looks at the facts of the late 1990s crisis, which revealed the precariousness of Indonesia's gains in reducing expenditure-based poverty. Thus to extend those gains, the poverty strategy needs to be defined, and then redeveloped by acknowledging the multidimensional reality of poverty, and, it is this notion which will lead to making the strategic choices. Second, within the country's political transition to a democratic, decentralized mode of governance, a poverty strategy needs to be consistent with an empowered populace, and democratic policymaking mechanisms. In creating a policy environment for raising the incomes of the poor, the report identifies the resumption of rapid sustainable growth, with rising real wages, employment opportunities, and, limited inflation, including the economic empowerment of the poor, enhanced by poverty-focused public expenditures. Inevitably, the provision of core public services is an area which should address the people's will in local governance policies, focusing on education and health, while providing appropriate infrastructure, and developing safety nets.