High GDP but low GDP per capita - Time to give a public explanation - the Congress and the Opposition

If we see , India’s GDP is growing but the majority of the population is not prospering . Why ??

Let us consider this

The quarterly growth report card shows that Mining and Manufacturing contributed between 18-22 % of the GDP in the Q 1 , 2010 numbers released last week.( Remember mining is concentrated in a few government PSU’s or some mining barons like Reddy’s of Karnataka etc )

Exports are roughly 13 % of the GDP

Agriculture contributes 20 % of the GDP ( Supporting 60 + % of the population )

My view is that, the decline in agriculture & growth in mining can be related directly to the growth of Naxalism , as one creates a naxalites and the other nurtures it !!

Rate of growth of yields per unit area in Agriculture has fallen in:

Food grains from 3.39 % in 1992-93 to 1.39 % in 2001-02

Non-Food grains from 3.19 % to -0.57 %

According to the Economic survey between 1980-81- 2001-02 the capital formation in agriculture has fallen from 3.4 % to 1.3 %

FDI in Agriculture was never encouraged or focussed – Announcements does not matter Dr. Manmohan Singh ji ?

Between 2002-08, population growth has been 1.4 % and the labour force has been growing at 1.9 %


According to the World Bank Development report

Between 1988 to 2008( 20 years ) as a percentage of GDP the :

Agriculture sector decreased from 30.5 % to 17.3 , whereas 65 % of the population depends on agriculture

Industry grew from 26.2 % to 28.8 % ( Population & people employable has been growing faster )

Manufacturing decreased from 16.2 % to 15.1 %

Services increased from 43.4 % to 54.6 % ( Private sector contributed to this )

Household final consumption expenditure decreased from 65.8 % to 54.1 %

Imports of goods and services increased from 7.5 % to 28 %

Yesterday , in the Times of India , the Finance Ministry’s chief Economic Advisor said that GDP growth of 8.9 % in the Q 1 of 2010-11 was due to robust growth in capital goods and consumer good production


Does it not look like some Middle eastern countries , where the GDP is very high but GDP per capita is less, as the high GDP is due to mineral oil wealth , and low GDP per capita is due to the fact that the oil wells are in the hands of a few royal families !! In India , Mining , Exports and trade is in a few hands and the focus , incentive and investment is maximum from the government !! For Agriculture , we all do not depend on the government but on the Rain Gods !!


BJP must act as a responsible opposition . The current state of affairs is not just a failure of the ruling front, but of the entire opposition . Public demands an explanation from both !


What is government doing ? Bhopal Gas tragedy GOM's is just an issue to divert the attention from real burning concerns of the public


Politicians are addressing 90 % urgent matters and 10 % important matters.

Time to act responsibly and explain or else both Congress and the opposition would be dammned in the next election


Rajendra Pratap Gupta


Email: office@rajendragupta.in