On Economic Growth and Domestic Saving in India

Tarlok Singh

Published: March 2011

This study examines the economic growth and domestic saving in India. The onset of gradual economic reforms since the 1980s provided some fillip to growth, and the momentum was carried forward through the adoption of a wide-ranging structural adjustment program since the beginning 1990s. The sustainability of an accelerated growth trajectory hinges heavily on the acceleration of saving and investment and the improvements in productivity. While foreign direct investment, liberalization of trade and the globalisation of goods and financial markets have well-documented gains, the accrual of these gains is contingent on the acceleration of productivity to a threshold level where the firms can effectively compete for market share in both domestic and international markets. Gobalization is unlikely to take developing economies out of low level equilibrium traps of underdevelopment, if it is not accompanied by the institutional reforms, development of adequate infrastructure, unleashing of productivities, development of efficient financial sector, and the improvements in the competitiveness of import-competing industries in the domestic and export-oriented industries in the international markets.