Comparison between rural and urban India A critical analysis

We find huge divisions in India; most prominent being the divide of Bharat and India i.e., the nation of rural people and India represents urban people. The major part of the poor consists of rural poor. The benefits of Economic successes have not percolated down to all parts of the society and the reason is that all sectors have not yet been integrated in the loop of economic growth. India’s economic growth is urban-led, with the gaps in living standards between the cities and countryside widening the recent years. An important aspect of generating “inclusive growth” is shifting the target of government aid to rural areas. Typically, large projects such as power generation, roads whereby freight can travel, and airports receive the lion’s share of government subsidies, while rural infrastructure receives comparatively little. Rural infrastructure, which serves 70 percent of the population, doesn’t get the attention it deserves. There is an increasing feeling that only few sections of the population such rich and middle class particularly in urban areas, corporate sector, foreign institutional investors, IT sector have benefited from the economic reforms. But there is an important element of inclusive growth, which is related to whether the benefits of overall productivity expansion result in higher private earnings for all groups within the economy. In short, to what extent will individuals in rural areas and, within rural areas, those not endowed with substantial land or other physical resources, benefit from expanding productivity through access to better paying and more secure employment? This is an active and growing area of research that is also of substantial interest to policy makers. The key components of the ‘inclusive growth of rural India’ strategy requires a sharp increase in investment in rural areas, rural infrastructure and agriculture, spurt in credit for farmers, increase in rural employment through a unique social safety net, and a sharp increase in public spending on education and health care. The high growth rates witnessed in recent years would become unsustainable if growth is not made inclusive and uniformly spread across the country. The urban-rural divide has to be bridged and rural areas integrated with the economic processes to ensure equitable and inclusive growth in rural India.