4/27/2012

Submitted toDr. Mandakani Pant Submitted byPallavi Chauhan

[PARADIGM SHIFT IN DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE]

Since post-independence to Present age of globalized India how the focus of development has encountered a shift and what does it implicates for the future of India and its development in true sense?

Necessity is the Mother of invention Implications of popular development Paradigm shiftHuman /sustainable development, good governance & Empowerment with People participation How-to's of sustainable development-Role of CSOs, State and private sector

Evolution of ideology of development- in global and Indian context

Ideology in Action in indian context Old concept of Development

The Pros-Rise of Industrialization The ConsEnvironment Degradation,Poverty & social inequality

In the first part the old concept of development is being explained; it is briefly discussed how the ideology of popular concept of development originated in global and Indian context? It is then followed by a study of how the ideology of old concept of development got implemented in newly independent India? In the second part, the implications of popular concept of development are presented; how in the bright side it resulted in the Globalization around the world and an upsurge in private sector & economic development within India. While on the dark side, phenomena like poverty, social Injustice, environmental degradation shifted the attention towards the loopholes of popular concept of development, demanding a paradigm shift in development discourse at global, national and local level. In the third part, the necessity of this paradigm shift has been manifested with the inventions like Inclusive idea of Human an d Sustainable development, people participation and good governance and what does it take to channelize the efforts of CSOs, State and private sector to achieve these ideals in the context of India ?

Old concept of developmentEvolution of Ideology of Development-At global Level, two Major events, in Post world war era, caused the evolution of this approach, namely -Scientific and Industrial Revolution an d emerging colonialism around the world; -Establishment of Bretton woods Institutions - World bank and IMF. "The basic assumption in the economic growth model is that an increase in the per capita GNP of country is p ositively correlated with the improvement in living conditions" - this assumption created a situation for the sole persuit of increasing Gr oss national product (GNP) via taking control of natural, physical a nd economic resources of less powerful nations (developing countries) by a few powerful Colonial countries. Moreover, as the colonial authority and control were established, the Pre-existing systems of authority and control and their associated cultures and norms were dismantled or by -passed.Colonial countries were backed by huge amount of loans from World bank and IMF and were the catalyzing agents for this economic development Meanwhile, implementing Structural adjustments programmes (SAP) in many poor countries ,especially in sub-saharan africa and latin-america continued to suffer the growing impact of International debt, econom ic instability, h yper inflation and balance of payments deficit; entailing a need for broader ideology and practice of development-discussed thoroughly in third part of the paper. In India-After getting Independence in 1947 after three years in 1950, the government of India established the planning commission to assess the countrys material, capital and human resources and to formulate a Plan for a balanced development by utilizing the resources most effectively and achievement of Good society . Gradually, the parliament adopted the socialist pattern of society as the objective of social and economic policy, which embodied the values like socialism, democracy and planned development. In the First chapter of First five year plan it was stated that The central objective of planning in India at the present stage is to initiate a process of development which will raise the living standards and open out to the people new opportunities for a richer and more varied life

for this there was a need to concentrat e the effort on the more immediate social problems and integrate the Social planning via close inter-relation of social institutions, human and technical resources in the possibly effective manner. A significant increase in national income and a marked improvement in living standards cannot be secured without a substantial increase in production and investment. To this end, the building up of economic and social overheads, exploration and development of minerals and the promotion of basic industries like st eel, machine building, coal and heavy chemicals are vital. Thus an adequate level of domestic capital formation, major stress of developing exports constituted the basic strategy in 3rd,4th and 5th five year plans but in a developing country like India ,using its own resources to the utmost extent possible could accentuate the balance of payments problems as this trend was already visible, globally. So a balanced mix of internal as well as external financial and technical know -how was envisaged with the hel p of external assistance-Donor agencies. Up to the second five year plan, India got foreign assistance from the USA, USSR, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, West Germany, Japan, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland and Switzerland, and to make Five year plan successful Rs.698 crore were utilized at the end of the 2 nd five year plan & Rs.1089 crore in 3rd Five year plan. Technical assistance was also provided by the United Nations through the expanded programmes of special assistance, the special fund, the world Health organization (WHO), the UNESCO, and the other agencies including the PL480 assistance that enabled India to build up pro ductive capacity by undertaking and carrying out programmes of irrigation and power generation; of iron and steel production and machine -building; and of exploration and exploitation of petroleum resources. Implications of Popular Development -THE PROS- Rise of Industrialization and Globalization-Indias potential capacity to produce capital goods from its enriching natural resources relatively cheaply; favourable external assistance from world bank, UN and other donor agencies; a large and growing domestic market, placed her in a favorable position to produce machinery and a large range of engineerin g, chemical and electrical goods needed for development.

In turn these stimulated the growth of medium and small industries and expanded employment both in urban and rural areas. India has seen a rapid rise in industrialization in the past few decades, due its expansion in markets such as pharmaceuticals, bio -engineering, nuclear technology, informatics and technology -oriented higher education. These latest trends have made India more globally -minded as their desire to trade with the world increases. THE CONSIndustrialization and Environment degradation GDP growth rates and higher levels of GDP growth rates are having direct positive relationship with energy consumption level, thus with countrys environmental resources, The increasing economic development and a rapidly growing population that has taken the country from 300 million people in 1947 to more than one billion people today is putting a strain on the environment, infrastructure, and the countrys natural resources. Industrial pollution, soil erosion, deforestation, rapid industrialization, urbanization, and land degradation are all worsening problems. Overexploitation of the country's resources -Be it land or water and the industrialization process has resulted environmental degradation of resources. India is now world's third biggest carbon dioxide emitting nation after China and the US. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said the country could not have high economic growth and a rapid rise in carbon emissions now that the nation was the number thre e emitter after China and US! Drawing our attention to the scarcity of natural resources, Rajni Kotharia scholar and a prominent social activist of our times - argues that there is a need to look beyond deve lopment because for him instead of bringing better standards of living for the mass of the people, instead of reducing inequality in several regions, there is an acutely felt scarcity of natural resources. In a world that is getting increasingly competitiv e and eroded and where the presumption of continuous availability of resources has suddenly disap peared, this has given rise to M ajor conflicts like gaining access to more and more natural resources, to retaining control over the resources, no matter in wh ich country and region they are located. At the same time, the ethic of consumerism is taking hold of all classes and of all nations and is leading to relentless destruction of natural resources-forest lands, coastal terrains and resources of soil, water and jungles. This is seriously reducing the production capacities is a sustained basis and making technological progress an enemy of the poor.

Poverty and Social Inequality-Alleviation of poverty has been one of the primary objectives of planned developmen t in India.Ever since the inception of planning, the policies and the programmes have been designed and redisigned with this aim.Indias regime authorities also took a series of steps in the 1970s, focusing mainly on three areas, land reforms, attempts to include smaller farmers in the process of economic growth and wage and employment schemes for the landless, provides empirical materials for analysing the distributive role of Indian state.Sixth and seventh plan too focused for growth with social justice follwed by the introduction of schemes like National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(NREGA), Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojna(SGRY) and Sampoorna Gram Swarozgar Yojna(SGSY), though these programmes face challenges at the level of implementation -the dirty dance of Poor governance and Corruption. Corruption and Poor governance-To quote Dr.Arindam Chaudhari-Dean of IIPM & one of the creative think tanks of our country - The primary reason for a country being ranked very low on the quality of life indicators' is not poverty or lack of resources but corruption and poor governance. Despite tall promises and about 65 Union budgets some presented by charismatic prime ministe rs India's ranking continues to be pathetic at just about 125. Not surprising because 400 million Indians are still illiterate, 750 million Indians lack access to basic sanitation and 1,000 million Indians spend their own family money on healthcare because the State has failed to act in that area. Look at the Transparency Index, or the Competitiveness Index or any other damn index and you will realize that India has a pathetic record of taking care of its poor and underprivileged. And it continues to do so despite so many social welfare programmes launched by this UPA government since 2004 when it came to power. The astonishing thing is that Indians still appear to be largely optimistic when we see results of global surveys. And then I realize those survey guys probably never went to slums or villages where farmers were committing suicide." P. Sainath, the Rural Affairs Editor of the Hindu newspa per, has taken upon himself the mission to reveal the severe agrarian crisis India is experiencing, a crisis that is generally ignored in both the local and international media. Some of thought provoking facts from his documentary -Neros guests are worth mentioning Around 60 percent of indians are enga ged in agriculture. 836 million live on 50 cen ts a day.

In the past 10 years over 200,000 farmers have committed suicide, many by drinking pesticide, as result of economic hardship following the effects of globalization on Indian agriculture-The agrarian crisis and a drive towards corporate farming. 8 million farmers abandoned farming between 1991-2001 and the figure is increasing as more and more rural people refuge to urban areas as labourers or little paid workers.

Further Sainath adds thatthere is no sphere of activity in this country where rich are not favoured, you give 5 bucks to a poor, you call that a subsidy, you give 5 billion to a rich, that is called incentive, the richer you are ,the b igger the subsidy you get or rather the incentive you can call. Just within the budget talking about the Indian corporate sector, concession of $6 million per hour is provided to corporates, outside the budget we give them free land, subsidized electricity, we exempt them from range of municipal taxes. For example-you know what Standard Chartered has been paying for decades for occupying 3600 square yards of some of the world's costliest real estate= less than 1Rs. Per square foot... ...it's pretty clear for whom government exi st for, when the sensitive index BSE fell ,it took two hours for the fin ance minister to arrive at Bombay Stock Exchange by a special flight to hold the hands of weeping billionaires, but it took 10years for the prime minister to visit the farm lands of poor farmers where more than 40000 people have committed suicides since 1995 according to government data." The Fastest Growing Sector in Our Country is not IT, not Software, it's Inequality-P.Sainath Necessity is the Mother of Invention -Paradigm shift- The replication of the western model of development by the underdeveloped countries did result in their economic growth to a great extent. But it was accompanied by a widened gulf between the developed and developing countries at global as well as national and local levels within the country; With this realization there had bee n an increasing awareness that the Changed Ideology must include the issues of social justice, sustainability and inclusiveness, satisfaction of fundamental human needs, participation of masses in the development discourse (The Human development report of UNDP -1990) considering which leads us to the NEW PARADIGM in global development: 'people centered' and 'good governance'.

Human and sustainable development The spectrum of this new paradigm views development that aims for nothing less than the awakening of true potentials of human beings and that is too by a sensitive approach towards social, economic and political development which shall nurture the diversity of indigenous traditions and institutions by strengthening the participatory democracy of peopl e themselves. Sustainable development calls for such a structure which >Understands the present depleted state of environment, globally >Integrates the economic and environmental policies >Economic policies aim for the conditions where people enjoy their lives (not a blind pursuit for things) >Environmental policies aim to eradicate poverty in industrialized and developed countries alike and finally, >to form this level of consensus , all nations will participate in decision making. How-to's of sustainable developmentThe Earth Summit proposed the need for adopting national -level strategies for sustainable development, which were highly participatory instruments intended to ensure socially responsible economic development,while protecting the resource base and the environment for the benefit of the future generations. 1)National level strategies Thus to ensure all the benefits of sustainable development that aims for inclusive ideology of Human development the structure should be implemented by adopting national level strategies ; instead of top down governance the element of participation should insure that strategies are communicated, mobilized and implemented at grassroots level. And the state could implement similar programmes like making biometric car ds in UIAD project as supported by Professor Arindam Chaudhari in his alternative Budget for Rahul Gandhi -If I were Pranabda, I would take the bold' step of abolishing all such subsidies and using the biometric photo identity cards to directly subsidise goods and services meant for the truly poor. 2) Role of CSOs, NGOs and Corporate For furthering the national level strategies to local level , governance is approached by decentralization - empowering local self-governing bodies viz. village councils or gram panchayats and effective participation is enabled by the fusion of local people organizations and active NGOs for realizing all those strategies and development programmes! Civil society interventions thus have enabled local bodies to e ngage in participatory bottom -up micro planning process to determine priorities

and design programmes, which address locally appropriate needs of different segments of local society. With an increasing awareness of Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) Pri vate sector can also play a role To achieve a sufficient amount of Sustainable socio -economic development in India. Conclusion-lastly, we can conclude that for sustainable development to take place there should firstly be a change in the national level strategies of Government of any country what then should be enhanced by the process of decentralization; effectively implemented by participation of local people and active NGOs and CSOs. Refrences1) Books-Course MDS-002-Development policies and programmes -By IGNOU and PRIA Continuing Education. 2) Articles-Alternative budget for Rahul Gandhi by Dr.Arindam Chaudhari-http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/a -budget-forrahul-gandhi/71/30890/ 3) Research paper-The Golden veil of Globalization -Excerpt from Chapter 8-Globalization and third world -Section-Effect of Industrialization and Globalization in Developing countries - Focus on India-http://www.scribd.com/doc/48965499/The -Golden-Veil-ofGlobalization-The-Seen-and-Hidden