By : Meenu Dhillon

The British ruled India for 190 years (1757-1947). India finally got independence on 15 August 1947and became republic on 26 th January,1950. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. India is a republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories with a parliamentary system of democracy. India is home to about 17% of the total world population while is has only 2.4% of the world area. Seven low-income states - Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh - are home to more than half of India's population. In 1947 we were36 crores now are 1,166,079,217 (1.17 billion) We had controlled our Birth Rate it was in 1947 40 per thousand now is 22.22 births per 1000 population Death Rate also decreased it was 27 and now6.4 deaths per 1000 populationAverage Life Expectancy then was 37.2 years , now 69.89 years. In 19506 children born per woman but now 2.72 children born per woman. There are 8,56,111 Doctors and 8,65,135 Nurses as compared to 61800 Doctors and 18504 Nurses in 1951.India has made huge progress in terms of increasing education in 1947 only 12% now are 61% but Mal 73.4% ,Female 47.8% .With the growth of industrialized urban centres, there has been a major shift of surplus population from rural to urban areas. Due to social and economic pressures, people from backward villages started to move towards urbanized centres in search of job, where newly established industries continuously offer job opportunities to those migrating to cities. This leads to further increase in competition for jobs and employment and also higher density of population. Population living in Urban Areas in 1947was17.29% and now 29% . now 106 million, nearly 10% of the population is unemployed and the overall unemployment rate is 7.3%, with rural areas doing marginally better (7.2%) than urban areas (7.7%). Almost 30% of workers are casual workers who work only when they are able to get jobs and remain unpaid for the rest of the time. Poverty in India is widespread with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. According to the a 2005 World Bank estimate, 42% of India's falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms Rs. 21.6 a day in urban areas and Rs 14.3 in rural areas). Despite sustained high economic growth rate, approximately 80% of its population lives on less than $2 a day (PPP). Poverty rates in rural Orissa (43%) and rural Bihar (40%) are some of the worst in the world. On the other hand, rural Haryana (5.7%) and rural Punjab (2.4%) compare well with middle-income countries 22% Population is below poverty line. One in every three urban Indians lives in homes too cramped to exceed even the minimum requirements of a prison cell in the US. Around half of Indian children are malnourished. Even though the arrival of Green Revolution brought end to famines in India, 40% of children under the age of three are underweight and a third of all men and women suffer from chronic energy deficiency.A 2007 report found that 65% of Indians, or 750 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees per day with most working in informal labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty. India has the world's largest cattle population: 193 million. The largest fruit producer, accounting for 10% of the world fruit production. India is the second largest producer and the largest consumer of silk in the world.Government studies show that farmers have pumped so much groundwater to irrigate their crops that the water table is dropping dramatically, as much as 3 feet every year.More than 50 percent of the total pesticides used in India are sprayed on cotton crops. India has about three times the population of the U.S., but 30 times more organic farmers than the U.S.Development of infrastructure was completely in the hands of the public sector and was plagued by corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, urban-bias and an inability to scale investment.Some 600 million Indians have no electricity at all.While 80% of Indian villages have at least an electricity line, just 44% of rural households have access to electricity.Production of Electricity in 1947 20 lakh kilowatt now 704 billion kilowatt. India has the world's second largest road network. Container traffic is growing at 15% a year. India produced over 10 million vehicles in 2006. The number of cars was more than one million. At present Indian railways system is the 2nd largest in the world. There are 7133 railway stations. Registered Vehicles increased from 2 lakh to 859 lakh. The Indian telecommunication industry, with about 506.04 million mobile phone connections (Nov 2009), is the third largest telecommunication network in the world and the second largest in terms of number of wireless connections.Internet use is rare; there were only 7.57 million broadband lines in India in November 2009, however it is still growing at slower rate and is expected to boom after the launch of 3G and wimax services. In 1950-51 there was only one post office for every 10,000 population in India. Number of telegraph office was just a quarter of the total number of post offices.Telephone facility was availed by a mere 0.2 % of total population of India Banks have a combined network of over 53,000 branches and 17,000 ATMs.

The rate of inflation in 2008 was 7.8%.The economy of India is the twelfth largest economy in the world by nominal value and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). By 2008, India had established itself as the world's second-fastest growing major economy. Foreign Exchange Reserves in India is Rs 1262300 crores.Investment in Public Sector increased from Rs 29 Crore to Rs 7,63,815 crore. In 2006-07 Estimated Black money in India was Rs 25,00,000 crore. At 30% rate of tax , Rs 7,50,000 crore tax was evaded on this Black Money.In India more than half of those surveyed had firsthand experience of paying bribe or peddling influence to get a job done in a public office. The 2007 report by Transparency International ranks India at 72nd place and states that significant improvements were made by India in reducing corruption.EVALUATION over all is India is a developing economy. There is high pressure of population because of the high growth rate. India has achieved an all time high literacy rate. The population is moving at a high rate from rural to urban areas. This is supporting further unemployment in the country.

There is jobless growth in the country because of the capital intensive technology applied by the big industries. Agriculture still remains to be the primary occupation of more than half of the population . There is wide spread poverty and inequality. Infrastructure is developing at a fast rate. Transportation and communication have shown significant development. Banking is well developed. Tax collection from agriculture is very less. Agriculture has developed much due to green revolution. The natural resources are depleting fast. Fiscal imbalances are still large. Foreign trade has improved a lot due to the introduction of the New Economic Policy in 1991 which led to liberalization, privatization and globalization. Indeed Indian economy is growing at a fast rate. While India is developing at a slow and steady rate, we still hope for better, although much has to be done to control population and improve poverty.

Mandeep Kaur Dhillon
(Economics Student at Punjab University, Chandigarh)
# 146 / 49-A Chandigarh
E mail : dhillonak@yahoo.com