I WON "CONFERO 2009"!!!

My Confero's winning Trophy

I have won the inter college Debate Competition - CONFERO 2009 at Shradhanjali 2009 held at Arya College of Engineering and I.T at Jaipur, Rajasthan. As a winner i recieved a cash prize of Rs. 2100 as well.

Well its a party time for me, two good news within a span of a few days!!!

Below is my Drafted matter of the debate:

CAN ECONOMIC GROWTH OF A COUNTRY BE CORELATED WITH DEVELOPMENT?

Good morning respected judges, honorary dignitaries and my dear friends. I am Ankit Bahuguna representing Second year from Computer Science Branch in CONFERO - 2009. I am going to present my views on the topic, “Can economic growth of a country be co-related with development?”

To be sincere, the bare thought of measuring development on ‘just the economic basis’ is really brainless. I strongly believe that economic growth is compilation of facts and figures that make up headlines in the annual reports of budget every year, but they are far away from what we call reality.

The development of a country actually means to enhance the standard of living of people in the country, not only on the basis of the economy but on social, political, rural, educational, cultural, infrastructural, and industrial levels as well. It is thus clear, that economic growth which is an illustration of the growth in economy of various sectors and of the various strata of the society, which is just an outside reflection of what we call camouflage of development. What happens on the ground level is way too different from what the stats reflect.

I will start with some statistics that reflect the economic growth of India in some way.

India's per capita income is $1016, ranked 142th in the world. Previously a closed economy, India's trade has grown fast. India currently accounts for 1.6% of World trade as of 2008 according to the WTO. According to the World Trade Statistics of the WTO in 2008, India's total merchandise trade (counting exports and imports) was valued at $344 billion in 2008 and India's services trade inclusive of export and import was $183 billion. Thus, India's global economic engagement in 2008 covering both merchandise and services trade was of the order of $512 billion, up by a record 72% from a level of $353 billion in 2006. India's trade has reached a still relatively moderate share 26% of GDP rise in 2008, up from 6% in 1985.

These stats look cool! Does that mean that at our country is a developed today? If you think YES, hang on! Time has come for you, to face some reality.

Despite this robust economic growth, India continues to face several major problems. The recent economic development has widened the economic inequality across the country. Despite sustained high economic growth rate, approximately 80% of its population lives on less than Rs. 50 a day, more than double the same poverty rate in China. 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.

India’s Economy has grown by more than 9% for three years running, and has seen a decade of 7% plus growth. This has reduced poverty by 10%, but with 60% of India’s 1.1 billion of total population living off agriculture and with droughts and floods increasing, poverty alleviation is still a major challenge.

The structural transformation that has been adopted by the national government in recent times has reduced growth constraints and contributed greatly to the overall growth and prosperity of the country. However, there are still major issues around federal vs. state bureaucracy, corruption and tariffs that require addressing. India’s public debt is 58% of GDP according to the CIA World Fact book, and this represents another challenge.

Around half of Indian children are malnourished. The proportion of underweight children is nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, India has not had famines since the Green Revolution in the early 1970s. While poverty in India has reduced significantly, official figures estimate that 27.5% of Indians still lived below the national poverty line of 50 rupees a day in 2008-2009. A 2008 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) found that 65% of Indians, or 750 million people, lived on less than 40 rupees per day with most working in "informal labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty." – This is a clear example of the disparity in the figures issued by the government and its subsidiary organizations. The question to ask is - why this inconsistency exists?

Moreover, I would like to throw light on crisis of brain drain in India. As we know that brain drain causes the technocrats to leave India and work in foreign lands. In doing so the Government does receive a share of their payment as taxes contributing to economic development, but in reality more than benefitting it is harming India. Consider this very fact that, if half of the working population would have stayed in India, convincing them that the country is good enough to cater their needs, they would have inspired twice their number and thus a pool of intellectuals could be developed who could work toward the development of the country.

Even though the economic growth represents quite a degree of development of a country, then why do we have to confront these challenges? And more importantly, how do these problems be solved?

This grave question is still answerable. Through - Improved governance, raise in educational achievement, increase in the quality and quantity of universities , control over inflation, introducing a credible fiscal policy, liberalizing financial markets, increasing trade with neighbours, increasing agricultural productivity, improving infrastructure and improving environmental quality. If we achieve these goals we’ll surely move towards, something which we can call in realistic terms, ‘India - A Developed Nation’.