Contacts: In Delhi: Sudip Mozumder (91 11) 2461-7241
E-mail:smozumder@worldbank.org New Delhi, July 26, 2006 : The World Bank’s flagship report for India, its Development Policy Review (DPR) 2006 entitled Inclusive Growth and Service Delivery: Building on India's Success was released in New Delhi today. The report emphasizes the need for India’s rapidly growing economy to improve the delivery of core public services such as healthcare, education, power and water supply for all India’s citizens. It stresses the importance of ensuring that public money is well spent through institutional reform of the public sector that creates effective systems of accountability. The report also pinpoints key constraints to India’s continued economic growth and outlines priority measures to maintain rapid growth while spreading its benefits more widely. The DPR 2006 states that while India has been very successful on a number of fronts such as reducing absolute poverty by more than half, dramatically reducing illiteracy, and vastly improving health conditions, these achievements have created new challenges for the country. "We very much hope this report will advance the debate on what we believe is India’s key development challenge: how to build on India’s emerging economic success, make it truly inclusive for a quarter of the country’s citizens who still live below the poverty line, and improve the effectiveness of public spending for core public services to ordinary citizens," said Michael Carter, the World Bank’s Country Director for India. Commenting on the report, Lant Pritchett, Lead Socio-Economist in the Social Development unit for South Asia and also a lead author of the report said, "For India to improve the delivery of core public services such as water and power supply, healthcare, education, and transportation, systems of accountability have to be strengthened. And this is possible only through institutional reforms." The DPR 2006 suggests four avenues for reform that can promote effective systems of public sector accountability: internal reform of public sector agencies; producing regular and reliable information for citizens; strengthening local governments and decentralizing responsibilities; and expanding the role of non-state providers. It however cautions that planned reform alone cannot bring about the desired changes - ultimately implementation is everything. For India to continue on its trajectory of rapid growth and expand this growth across regions, sectors, and people, the report suggests: - Remove key binding constraints of poor infrastructure and high fiscal deficits
- Focus on equalizing accelerators: reforms that both improve economic efficiency and spread the benefits of growth such as changing labor regulations to spur job creation and reforming the financial sector
- Raise agricultural productivity by returning to investments in technology and infrastructure
- Improve the climate for growth in lagging states and regions by reducing the regulatory burden, ensuring law and order, and expanding rural infrastructure to increase connectivity
- Empower the poor through proactive policies and programs that assist them to take part in the market on fair and equitable terms.
The DPR is one of the core analytical tools or instruments by which the Bank seeks to assist partner countries frame some of their key development challenges. **** For more information on the Report and the World Bank activities in India, please visit: http://www.worldbank.org/in |
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