It's All About Productivity

ONLY SUSTAINED PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH CAN RAISE LIVING STANDARDS

- Amit Kapoor

It is quite commonplace to hear the argument that India is expected to be the next economic superpower in a few decades. However, the current reality is far from it. India’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (at 2010 prices) for 2016 stands at just $1,861.5 – an abysmally low figure. A straightforward question here: what is it that India seems to misconstrue in the economic game to move up the radar?

Being part of an increasingly knowledge-based world economy, India’s positioning in the global prosperity scenario must be seen and targeted from the national competitiveness perspective. Although very much relevant for any economy, competitiveness isn’t only about macroeconomic variables, availability of natural resources or about state policies; it is about the productivity of a nation’s factors of production (labour, land and capital) employed during production processes.