Governing India’s many spaces (Losing the balance in growth and progress)

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 Governing India’s many spaces (Losing the balance in growth and progress)

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Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

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• The next government's mandate : If we take stock of progress till date, we can list the agenda for the next government to take power. There are 3 useful indices we can focus on

1. Ease of Doing Business (EDB)
2. Human Development (HDI)
3. Environmental Performance (EPI)

• These are published globally, and rank nations as per relative performance. Rankings show not the absolute achievements, but distance from a global frontier.
• The EDB : This World Bank index shows the impact of govt. regulations on running of businesses, and also the property rights in a society.

1. Rankings are based on how govt. regulations help -
1. starting a business,
2. getting construction permits,
3. electricity connections, 
4. registering property,
5. accessing credit, 
6. protection of investors,
7. paying taxes,
8. cross-border trading, 
9. contracts enforcement etc.
2. Indian performance : From 134 in 2014, we have reached 77 in 2018. Position is okay, but improvement very good. Despite a World Bank official stating that the ranking may have suffered from political bias in recent years, we can overlook it.
3. Problem with EDB : It only focusses on govt. regulations, and not "producer services" like electricity, water supply and waste management. These haven't improved much in 5 years. Data on infra investment has stopped coming forth after the death of the Planning Commission.

• The HDI : A rare India-Pakistan collaboration, this index was created by Mahbub ul Haq and Amartya Sen for the UNDP. It combines indicators for health, income and education for a nation.

1. Criticism of HDI : 
1. It combines categories that cannot be combined - income, health and education (they are not mutual substitutes)
2. It does not talk about quality of development, despite efforts to do so (by looking at education and health) But HDI is well-respected as an indicator today.
2. Where is India? We were at 130 in 2014, and are stuck there even now. So the fastest-growing economy in the world was unable to improve its ranking DESPITE that aspect being counted in HDI! So  an economy can grow, without human development.  We are in the bottom third of nations.

• The EPI : The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is produced by Yale and Columbia Universities alongwith the WEF (World Economic Forum). It ranks nations on 24 performance indicators, based on "environmental health" and "eco-system vitality".

1. Categories : Issue categories are air quality, water and sanitation, water resources, agriculture, forests, fisheries, biodiversity and habitat, climate and energy.
2. India is at 177 / 180 : We slipped from 155 in 2014, and are at 177 now. We are one of the WORST performers on environmental front.

• Summary : So we now know how India has been doing on three critical fronts in 5 years - business, human development and environmental protection. The govt. has focussed a lot on the first alone.
• Lowering health and education expenditure : We have lowered it in 5 years (as a % of GDP) and distinctly lowered the focus on environment. The Coastal Regulation Zone notification 2018 is the recent example, which will allow tourism and construction on lands considered inviolable earlier. All this needs to be reversed. We cannot accumulate wealth while nature frays.
• In these five years, the wealth accumulation has happened at a high pace, and the ease of doing business has improved, while the environmental performance and human development has suffered or lagged behind.

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