http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2008/09/wednesday-night-1385/ Where the world comes together Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:50:31 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2008/09/wednesday-night-1385/#comment-5028 Diana Thébaud Nicholson Wed, 04 Oct 2006 02:01:22 +0000 http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2008/09/wednesday-night-1385/#comment-5028 <strong><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1886071,00.html" rel="nofollow">The forgotten other India</a></strong> The country's booming economy hides a far larger reality of mass poverty, illiteracy and inequality Kevin Watkins, Director of the UN's Human Development Report Guardian (Op-Ed) So what is holding India back? This is a country defined by division. Inequalities exist between economically dynamic states in the south and the slow-growing, impoverished north; between urban areas and agricultural ones; between rich and poor; between women and men. Economic reform and global integration has done little to break down these divides, with the result that high growth has been grafted on to mass poverty. Consider the hi-tech boom. This is seen by some as a force that is transforming Indian society, but the reality is more prosaic. The IT sector employs about 1 million people in a country where 8 million join the labour force each year. Employment in the formal manufacturing sector has fallen over the past decade. Meanwhile, agriculture, the source of livelihood for three in every four people, is trapped in a cycle of low growth and under-investment. Poor public services reinforce the impact of unbalanced growth. Uttar Pradesh, with a population bigger than Germany and Britain combined, has immunisation rates that compare unfavourably with those in Mali, and child death rates to match Sudan's. The public education system is in a parlous state, with fewer than 10% of children making it to tertiary education. Business leaders such as Narayana Murthy, the head of the IT group Infosys, have warned that a first-world industrial system cannot be built on a foundation of mass illiteracy, exclusion from education and huge gender inequalities. The forgotten other India
The country’s booming economy hides a far larger reality of mass poverty, illiteracy and inequality
Kevin Watkins, Director of the UN’s Human Development Report
Guardian (Op-Ed)
So what is holding India back? This is a country defined by division. Inequalities exist between economically dynamic states in the south and the slow-growing, impoverished north; between urban areas and agricultural ones; between rich and poor; between women and men. Economic reform and global integration has done little to break down these divides, with the result that high growth has been grafted on to mass poverty. Consider the hi-tech boom. This is seen by some as a force that is transforming Indian society, but the reality is more prosaic. The IT sector employs about 1 million people in a country where 8 million join the labour force each year. Employment in the formal manufacturing sector has fallen over the past decade. Meanwhile, agriculture, the source of livelihood for three in every four people, is trapped in a cycle of low growth and under-investment. Poor public services reinforce the impact of unbalanced growth. Uttar Pradesh, with a population bigger than Germany and Britain combined, has immunisation rates that compare unfavourably with those in Mali, and child death rates to match Sudan’s.
The public education system is in a parlous state, with fewer than 10% of children making it to tertiary education. Business leaders such as Narayana Murthy, the head of the IT group Infosys, have warned that a first-world industrial system cannot be built on a foundation of mass illiteracy, exclusion from education and huge gender inequalities.

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