An India For Everyone- A Path to Inclusive Development

Book excerpt: India is the world's third largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity. For a country that had become mired in a mindset of being an almost-ran, it is quite an achievement. Alongside, however, are some startling statistics. It has, for instance, the largest number of poor people in a single country - an estimated 300 million below the poverty line. Literacy remains at an appalling low, with 273 million illiterates in 2011, making it the country with the largest illiterate population on earth. On the health front too, India is home to 40 per cent of the world's undernourished children. One-fourth of the world's childbirth deaths and one-fifth of its infant deaths take place in India. In An India for Everyone: A Guide to Inclusive Development, Amarjeet Sinha, an education expert who has played a major role in designing the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and the National Rural Health Mission, offers a companion dream to the economic one. An India that has truly been able to provide a decent sustenance to its billion plus people. He examines key issues of under-nutrition, health care, education and social security. Crucial to providing these is reforming the public recruitment system, decentralizing authority and increasing accountability among government servants, which will help bring about better public systems in the country. Going beyond politics and economic reforms, this book addresses the issues that truly form the bedrock of where we want to be.