Delivering the 13th annual Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture on Thursday, former finance minister of West Bengal and eminent economist Ashok Mitra talked about anomalies that persist in India’s economic growth. “Growth for whom: Choice or Dilemma” was the theme of the lecture.Talking about an approximate GDP growth rate of 9 per cent, Mitra said: “It isn’t unusual that we underplay instances of failure and concentrate on areas where achievements are prominent. While this is a world-beating performance by India, growth is unevenly distributed. Since services account for one-half of our GDP, an annual growth rate of 15 per cent in this sector itself ensures an overall GDP growth of 7.5 per cent. Even if agriculture and industry together grew at an annual rate of 3 per cent, it would still be possible to attain an overall GDP growth of 9 per cent.” While output of services has taken off, industrial activities are expanding at a lower pace and agriculture is lagging far behind, he added. “Even when services contribute one-half of the GDP, they provide employment to only 20 per cent of the workforce. On the other hand, agriculture and allied activities are a source of livelihood for close to two-thirds of the working population,” he said. “Since the poor constitute a clear majority of the electorate, to ignore them would be a risky venture. At the same time, any large-scale intervention on their behalf might queer the pitch of free market activities and stifle GDP growth,” warned Mitra.The Prem Bhatia Memorial Lecture and Award ceremony was presided over by former RBI governor Bimal Jalan. The Prem Bhatia Award for best political reporting for 2008 was given to Nirupama Subramanium, The Hindu correspondent in Pakistan. The award for best reporting on environment was given to Keya Acharya, a freelance journalist.
