Unit 4: Development strategies

Poverty

• Absolute poverty: inability to meet minimum needs; measured by a poverty line (Tendulkar, Rangarajan committees).
• Relative poverty: poverty compared with others' incomes.
• Multidimensional Poverty Index (NITI Aayog/UNDP): health, education and living standards — the share of multidimensionally poor fell from about 25% (2015–16) to about 15% (2019–21) and further later.
• Causes: low growth in agriculture, unemployment, population growth, inequality, inflation, illiteracy, social factors.
• Measures: MGNREGA (100 days of wage employment), PM-KISAN, PMAY (housing), NFSA and PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, DAY-NRLM (self-help groups), Ayushman Bharat.

Unemployment

• Measurement (PLFS): usual status, current weekly status; unemployment rate around 3–5% (usual status) but high among educated youth; large informal sector.
• Measures: Skill India, Startup India, Make in India, PMEGP, MGNREGA, PLI schemes, Mudra loans.

• About 90% of India's workforce is in the unorganised/informal sector — agriculture, small enterprises, construction, street vending, gig work — with low wages and little social security.
• Trends (PLFS): falling share of agriculture in employment (but rose temporarily after COVID), rise of self-employment, growth of services and construction jobs, rising female labour force participation (about 40% in 2023–24), growth of gig and platform workers (projected 2.35 crore by 2029–30, NITI Aayog), formalisation via EPFO/GST.
• Policies: labour codes, e-Shram portal, Code on Social Security (gig workers), PLI schemes, Skill India, MGNREGA, PM Vishwakarma, Employment Linked Incentive (2024).

• Pricing: Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 22+ crops on CACP recommendations (at least 1.5 times A2+FL cost since 2018–19); procurement by FCI and state agencies; PM-AASHA for pulses and oilseeds.
• Marketing: APMC regulated markets, e-NAM (over 1,400 mandis), Farmer Producer Organisations (10,000 FPOs scheme), warehouse receipts, cold chains, agricultural export policy; issues — middlemen, distress sales, fragmented markets.
• Financing: institutional credit (commercial banks, RRBs, co-operatives, NABARD refinance), Kisan Credit Card, interest subvention, priority sector lending (18% to agriculture), PMFBY crop insurance, microfinance and SHGs; agricultural credit target over ₹27 lakh crore (2024–25).

• Value: India's merchandise exports crossed US$ 430 billion and total exports of goods and services crossed US$ 800 billion in 2023–24/2024–25; merchandise imports are larger, so India runs a merchandise trade deficit offset partly by a services surplus and remittances.

Composition

Direction

• Top partners: USA (largest export destination), China (largest source of imports), UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia (oil since 2022), Singapore, Netherlands.
• Shift from Europe and the USSR (before 1991) towards the USA, West Asia and Asia.
• Free trade agreements: India–UAE CEPA (2022), India–Australia ECTA (2022), India–EFTA TEPA (2024), India–UK CETA (2025).

• Energy: installed capacity over 450 GW (2025) with about half from non-fossil sources; coal still dominant in generation; renewable push (solar parks, PM-Surya Ghar rooftop solar), green hydrogen mission (2023), nuclear expansion; reforms — UDAY, electricity amendment rules.
• Transport: National Highways network over 1.4 lakh km; Bharatmala; Dedicated Freight Corridors; Vande Bharat trains and railway electrification (near 100%); Sagarmala for ports; UDAN for regional air connectivity; PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (2021) for integrated planning; National Logistics Policy (2022).
• Financing: budgetary capex (over ₹11 lakh crore in 2025–26), PPP models (HAM, TOT), InvITs, NaBFID, National Monetisation Pipeline.

• Education: National Education Policy 2020, Samagra Shiksha, PM-POSHAN, expansion of higher education (GER around 28%).
• Health: Ayushman Bharat — PM-JAY (₹5 lakh cover per family, extended to all seniors 70+ in 2024) and health and wellness centres; National Health Mission; public health spending around 2% of GDP.
• Gender: Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Mission Shakti, women's reservation law (2023), Lakhpati Didi, SHGs.
• Financing social inclusion: PMJDY accounts, DBT through the JAM trinity, MUDRA, Stand-Up India, PMJJBY/PMSBY/APY, SHG–bank linkage, priority sector lending, CSR spending, social stock exchange (2022), impact investing.