Regional Imbalances in Indian Economy over Plan Periods

Abstract

IN recent times, there has been considerable debate in several international fora about regional imbalances between developed countries and developing countries. Extensive dialogues have taken place under GATT, UNCTAD, and other interna*tional fora about various measures necessary toimplement amoreratio.,,1 transfer of resources from developed c iatnries to developing countries, and for reduCtion in global imbalances arising on a-count of maldistribution of natural and human resources. The developed countries have all along taken measures by intrWucing restrictions on transfer of resources to poorer countries on one pretext or other. In reality, not much headway has been made in motivating developed countries to share their resources with poor nations, despite economic advantages accruing to developed countries themselves in process, which is at root of pr6blern of worldwide disparities. Similar to disparities at global level, variations in development also arise within a country, be it developed or less developed. There may be pockets of less developed sub-regions in a developed region within a developing country. In words of J G Williamson (1965), the poor countries are characterised by large and growing regional disparities and rich countries are generally charactensed by small and diminishing gaps. Such aberrations in* development bring in their walke several problems. In India, uneveni distribution of natural resources has itself created large severely underdevelopedregions in tiscountry which have been recently brought into sharp focus. The problem needs to 'De addressed by well thought-out stintac;i-s including deliberate transfer of resources to underdeveloped regions. This is vital because proper growth of all regions of country is essential for its prosperity in terms of political and socialsystems, and for economic viability of nation itself. Against this background, an exercise has been undertaken in framework of plans to devise various measures to assess how far maldistribution of resources has been corrected and,whether there has been a noticeable reduction in regional imbalances and changes in relative placement of various states according to degree of development. In this paper, an attempt is made to (1) review strategies adopted in various plans to reduce regional imbalances; (2) examine impact of plan outlays on development of states; (3) examine, specifically, whether planning process has contr ibuted to reduction of regional imbalances across states; and (4) understand structural changes in patterns of development in different regions. This study is divided into seven sections. Section II deals with question of role of state in affording justice to its citizens inhabiting any corner of it., Section III presents various strategies adopted by govei'nment of India to tackle problem of regio'la imbalances. These strategies are reflected in plan documents. Section IV gives a brief 'onceptual description of various tfleories and studies on regional economics/regional imbalances with special reference to India. he nature of data and their sources and limitations are described in Section 'V and empirical analysis thereon is carried out in Section VI. Finally, Section VII presents conclusions that emerge from study.