India's Economic Future: Education, Technology, Energy and Environment

The book analyses the prospects for maintaining a high rate of growth in the Indian economy. Constraints to achieving this goal are the poor state of the infrastructure and the need to accelerate the rate of productivity growth. Macro stability is necessary to maintain high rates of investment a pre-requisite for rapid growth. The other papers look at the prospects of productivity growth in agriculture and manufacturing and the factors that influence productivity growth, namely education, policies regarding innovation and foreign direct investment. A desire for equity is a strong feature of policy making in India and in recent years, this has taken the shape of reservations in jobs and institutions of higher education. Whether such a policy will energize a larger section of the population and so lead to faster growth or result in inefficiencies that limit growth, is an important issue discussed in the book. The book also discusses whether energy may emerge as a significant constraint towards achieving a higher rate of growth. Finally the book addresses the impact of rapid growth on the environment.