Book review - Gujarat: Governance for Growth and Development
'Gujarat: Governance for Growth and Development' examines the reasons for the state's success.
Gujarat: Governance for Growth and Development
By Bibek Debroy
Academic Foundation
Pages: 166
Price: Rs 795
How prosperous will India really be a generation from now? Will poverty exist and if so how much and in what form? What will our infrastructure look like and how competitive will India's economy be? And most important, how can strong leadership causally determine the shape of economic development and lift an entire generation to the next level of growth? Bibek Debroy's superbly argued book discusses only Gujarat, but in it also lie clues to tomorrow's India, provided some necessary pre-conditions fall in place.
Debroy, unarguably one of India's finest economists, argues that the all India real gross state domestic product (GSDP) increased from an average of 6.16 per cent between 1994/95 and 2004/05 to 8.28 per cent between 2004/05 and 2011/12. In the same period Gujarat's average GSDP rose from 6.45 to 10.08 per cent. In line with all-India trends, overall poverty and urban poverty in the state have declined between 2004/05 and 2009/10. The real story, however, is in rural Gujarat, where there has been a sharp drop in poverty, significantly more than at the all-India level. Unlike in many other states, the benefits of growth have trickled down to rural Gujarat.
Debroy maintains that one of the fundamental tenets of the "Gujarat Model" has been to free up space for private sector expenditure in capital formation. The bulk (76 per cent) of its capital expenditure is developmental, with social services accounting for 55.2 per cent. Of revenue expenditure too, 63.2 per cent is developmental, of total expenditure the figure is 66.41 per cent. There is a prioritisation of sectors in the following order: education, sports, art and culture, water supply and sanitation, housing and urban development.
No story of Gujarat is complete without referring to the remarkable development of the power, roads and ports sectors, which have been the engines driving the other sectors. Gujarat, a power deficit state in 2001, is about to become a power surplus one. Likewise, its road network has been highlighted by the World Bank as a global best practice.
Where the book stumbles, though, is in two respects. First, it does not discuss law and order or the home department's functioning, which many would argue is important for economic development since it is the underlying foundation of development. Second, it does not probe the leadership factor in any great depth though there are references to it here and there. It is widely believed that Chief Minister Narendra Modi lifted up Gujarat by the bootstraps and took it to the next level to the extent that, on many indicators, Gujarat today compares with China. No doubt Gujarat already had an existing good foundation of economic development. But Modi's leadership and his handpicked civil servants have played an enormous role in crafting 'state-led economic development' which deserved some more attention in the book.
What has happened in Gujarat and why? Can it be replicated elsewhere? Read Debroy's chronicle to find the answers to these questions and more.
SRIVATSA KRISHNA
The reviewer is an IAS Officer
Views are personal
By Bibek Debroy
Academic Foundation
Pages: 166
Price: Rs 795
How prosperous will India really be a generation from now? Will poverty exist and if so how much and in what form? What will our infrastructure look like and how competitive will India's economy be? And most important, how can strong leadership causally determine the shape of economic development and lift an entire generation to the next level of growth? Bibek Debroy's superbly argued book discusses only Gujarat, but in it also lie clues to tomorrow's India, provided some necessary pre-conditions fall in place.
Debroy, unarguably one of India's finest economists, argues that the all India real gross state domestic product (GSDP) increased from an average of 6.16 per cent between 1994/95 and 2004/05 to 8.28 per cent between 2004/05 and 2011/12. In the same period Gujarat's average GSDP rose from 6.45 to 10.08 per cent. In line with all-India trends, overall poverty and urban poverty in the state have declined between 2004/05 and 2009/10. The real story, however, is in rural Gujarat, where there has been a sharp drop in poverty, significantly more than at the all-India level. Unlike in many other states, the benefits of growth have trickled down to rural Gujarat.
Bibek Debroy's superbly argued book discusses only Gujarat, but in it also lie clues to tomorrow's India, provided some necessary pre-conditions fall in place
No story of Gujarat is complete without referring to the remarkable development of the power, roads and ports sectors, which have been the engines driving the other sectors. Gujarat, a power deficit state in 2001, is about to become a power surplus one. Likewise, its road network has been highlighted by the World Bank as a global best practice.
Where the book stumbles, though, is in two respects. First, it does not discuss law and order or the home department's functioning, which many would argue is important for economic development since it is the underlying foundation of development. Second, it does not probe the leadership factor in any great depth though there are references to it here and there. It is widely believed that Chief Minister Narendra Modi lifted up Gujarat by the bootstraps and took it to the next level to the extent that, on many indicators, Gujarat today compares with China. No doubt Gujarat already had an existing good foundation of economic development. But Modi's leadership and his handpicked civil servants have played an enormous role in crafting 'state-led economic development' which deserved some more attention in the book.
What has happened in Gujarat and why? Can it be replicated elsewhere? Read Debroy's chronicle to find the answers to these questions and more.
SRIVATSA KRISHNA
The reviewer is an IAS Officer
Views are personal
