Articles by Ajit Kumar Singh

This article critically scrutinises the tall claims of the state government using the official figures of the gross state domestic product, and shows that over the four years of the present government, the per capita income in UP has increased merely by 0.43% as against the claim of 100% growth. The analysis of growth rates at the sectoral level shows that the rates of growth in most of the sectors during the present government are lower than the growth rates registered during the previous government.

Significant interregional development disparities plaguing Uttar Pradesh today are often attributed to its large and unwieldy size. There is a strong prima facie case for the division of the state into smaller units to improve governance and development. But the demand for the state’s division, raised from time to time by all major parties except the Samajwadi Party, has presently receded into the background in the absence of mass support for it from any region. In the political discourse surrounding the 2017 UP assembly elections, it appears unlikely that restructuring of the state into manageable units will emerge as a significant issue.

Fiscal profligacy is driving the state of Uttar Pradesh into a debt trap. When the state government borrows to meet current expenditure, there is little it can spare for development expenditure as recent budgets show.

This paper discusses some of the likely consequences of the new economic policy measures being pursued since July 1991, particularly their impact on the living conditions of the working class. The author first reviews the theoretical literature dealing with the distributional effects of stabilisation and structural adjustment programmes. This is followed by a brief survey of the empirical experience of countries in different parts of the world with respect to the social consequences of economic reforms. Finally, with the help of these theoretical and empirical insights, the issue is discussed in the context of the Indian economy using whatever limited data are available.