India has $6 trillion wealth, but 'human capital' growth very slow says new study
How does one measure the wealth of a country? The most popular measure is the "gross domestic product" (GDP) which adds up the values of everything produced in the country in one year. But this leaves glaring holes. It is not a measure of wealth but a measure of incomes. Moreover, natural resources and, people's skills and education levels are not factored in. Neither is the all important question of sustainability - whether a country is living beyond its means at present, putting in danger future generations. To measure human wellbeing, the Human Development Index (HDI) is used. But that excludes hard economic progress.
A study led by Cambridge economist Partha Dasgupta proposes a new "Inclusive Wealth Index" (IWI) attempts to make up for these gaps. It measures four kinds of capitals or assets in 20 countries - human, manufactured, natural and health. These are measured from 1990 to 2008 to get the trends. Further adjustment is done to account for effect of climate change, technology and oil prices. The study report was released at the recent Rio+20 Summit by United Nations University and the UN Environment Programme.
The US retains its top position with an estimated inclusive wealth $117.8 trillion (constant 2000 dollars), followed by Japan at $55.1 trillion and then China at $20 trillion. India is estimated to have inclusive wealth of $6.1 trillion.
The report stresses that it is the way this wealth has been changing in the past 19 years that really matters - because sustainability of growth is what matters in the long term. In terms of growth rates, the study results turn all existing rankings of economies based on just GDP or HDI topsy turvy. India, China, Chile and Kenya show the highest growth rates in IWI over the studied period while other conventionally "strong" or "rich" economies like the US, UK, Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia clock in lower down.
Of the 20 studied countries, 19 show positive growth rates. This means that these countries are on paths that are largely sustainable - to different degrees. Only Russia has a negative growth rate.
However, large populations of countries like India and China skews the IWI in their favor, the report says. To get a better measure, the IWI is calculated on a per person basis.
This brings a dramatic change in the rankings. China emerges at the top with a per capita IWI of 2.07 because of its phenomenal increase in manufactured capital. France (1.44) and Germany (1.83) move up. India along with Japan and Brazil are in the middle now with a per capita IWI of 0.91. US (0.69) and UK (0.88) remain laggards.
India's slow pace of IWI growth - 0.9 percent in 19 years - is because of "precipitous decline in natural capital" and slow progress in developing human capital according to the report. India's natural capital declined from $1928 million (constant US dollars of year 2000) in 1990 to $1330 million in 2008 and its human capital increased from $1926 million to $2388 million in the same period. That's a 31% decline in natural capital and a 24% increase in human capital China increased its human capital in the same period by over 33% while its natural capital went down by 23%, according to estimates of the report.
But the most affected by factoring in population are countries like Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Columbia, South Africa, and Venezuela, the report says. For instance, Kenya experienced relatively high absolute IWI growth of 2.85, while only managing a per-capita IWI growth rate of 0.06. The others experienced negative per-capita IWI growth. These countries have two options to reverse this trend: they must either reduce population growth rates or re-invest in the different capital asset bases to increase the rate of IWI growth. Their poor performance is mainly due to higher population growth but also higher rate of depletion of natural resources.
Comparing the growth rates of IWI, GDP and Human Development Index (HDI) of these twnty countries over 1990 to 2008, the report points out that for all countries except Germany and France GDP growth rates were higher that IWI growth because capital stocks are not keeping pace with GDP growth.
Inclusive Wealth Index per capita
Yearly Growth Rate (1990-2008)
Inclusive Wealth
($ trillion, constant 2000)
India
0.9
6.1
China
2.1
20.0
Germany
1.8
19.5
Brazil
0.9
7.4
Japan
55.1
UK
13.4
US
0.7
117.8
Russia
-0.3
10.3
Nigeria
-1.8
0.89
Source: Inclusive Wealth Report 2012
India has $6 trillion wealth, but 'human capital' growth very slow says new study - The Times of India
India has $6 trillion wealth, but 'human capital' growth very slow says new study
How does one measure the wealth of a country? The most popular measure is the "gross domestic product" (GDP) which adds up the values of everything produced in the country in one year. But this leaves glaring holes. It is not a measure of wealth but a measure of incomes. Moreover, natural resources and, people's skills and education levels are not factored in. Neither is the all important question of sustainability - whether a country is living beyond its means at present, putting in danger future generations. To measure human wellbeing, the Human Development Index (HDI) is used. But that excludes hard economic progress.
A study led by Cambridge economist Partha Dasgupta proposes a new "Inclusive Wealth Index" (IWI) attempts to make up for these gaps. It measures four kinds of capitals or assets in 20 countries - human, manufactured, natural and health. These are measured from 1990 to 2008 to get the trends. Further adjustment is done to account for effect of climate change, technology and oil prices. The study report was released at the recent Rio+20 Summit by United Nations University and the UN Environment Programme.
The US retains its top position with an estimated inclusive wealth $117.8 trillion (constant 2000 dollars), followed by Japan at $55.1 trillion and then China at $20 trillion. India is estimated to have inclusive wealth of $6.1 trillion.
The report stresses that it is the way this wealth has been changing in the past 19 years that really matters - because sustainability of growth is what matters in the long term. In terms of growth rates, the study results turn all existing rankings of economies based on just GDP or HDI topsy turvy. India, China, Chile and Kenya show the highest growth rates in IWI over the studied period while other conventionally "strong" or "rich" economies like the US, UK, Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia clock in lower down.
Of the 20 studied countries, 19 show positive growth rates. This means that these countries are on paths that are largely sustainable - to different degrees. Only Russia has a negative growth rate.
However, large populations of countries like India and China skews the IWI in their favor, the report says. To get a better measure, the IWI is calculated on a per person basis.
This brings a dramatic change in the rankings. China emerges at the top with a per capita IWI of 2.07 because of its phenomenal increase in manufactured capital. France (1.44) and Germany (1.83) move up. India along with Japan and Brazil are in the middle now with a per capita IWI of 0.91. US (0.69) and UK (0.88) remain laggards.
India's slow pace of IWI growth - 0.9 percent in 19 years - is because of "precipitous decline in natural capital" and slow progress in developing human capital according to the report. India's natural capital declined from $1928 million (constant US dollars of year 2000) in 1990 to $1330 million in 2008 and its human capital increased from $1926 million to $2388 million in the same period. That's a 31% decline in natural capital and a 24% increase in human capital China increased its human capital in the same period by over 33% while its natural capital went down by 23%, according to estimates of the report.
But the most affected by factoring in population are countries like Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Columbia, South Africa, and Venezuela, the report says. For instance, Kenya experienced relatively high absolute IWI growth of 2.85, while only managing a per-capita IWI growth rate of 0.06. The others experienced negative per-capita IWI growth. These countries have two options to reverse this trend: they must either reduce population growth rates or re-invest in the different capital asset bases to increase the rate of IWI growth. Their poor performance is mainly due to higher population growth but also higher rate of depletion of natural resources.
Comparing the growth rates of IWI, GDP and Human Development Index (HDI) of these twnty countries over 1990 to 2008, the report points out that for all countries except Germany and France GDP growth rates were higher that IWI growth because capital stocks are not keeping pace with GDP growth.
Inclusive Wealth Index per capita
Yearly Growth Rate (1990-2008)
Inclusive Wealth
($ trillion, constant 2000)
India
0.9
6.1
China
2.1
20.0
Germany
1.8
19.5
Brazil
0.9
7.4
Japan
55.1
UK
13.4
US
0.7
117.8
Russia
-0.3
10.3
Nigeria
-1.8
0.89
Source: Inclusive Wealth Report 2012
India has $6 trillion wealth, but 'human capital' growth very slow says new study - The Times of India
India has plenty of lessons to learn from the eurozone crisis
A 2005 study carried out to analyse the costs and benefits to Britain for being a member of the European Union concluded that unless the EU agrees to adopt competitive and free markets, and makes an effective commitment not to bail out insolvent states, it made sense for Britain to leave the eurozone. Seven years later, it would seem that Greece has validated that conclusion.
A number of countries and financial institutions have admitted to making contingency plans for the extreme scenario of Greece being forced out from the eurozone. With India going through its own economic problems - a Crisil study recently revised India's GDP growth forecast for 2012-13 downwards to 6.5% from the earlier estimate of 7% - it would be pertinent to focus on key lessons from the Greek episode.
First, incentives matter. High economic growth is sustainable only if there is a competitive private sector, which raises the productive capacity of the economy. Barriers to entry and exit of labour and capital curtail business expansion by raising the cost of production .
Excessive protection to domestic industry, lack of regulatory clarity and good institutional framework, slow decision-making and poor governance do not incentivise businesses to improve efficiency. At present, in India, key input sectors such as mining, power and utilities are adversely affected due to similar problems.
Second, living beyond your means year after year can lead to bankruptcy. This is especially true if borrowed money is not used for productive purposes. Greece wrongly believed that it could continue to milk the EU for subsidies and fiscal transfers. With fiscal transfers not linked to productivity , wages raced ahead of productivity growth, thereby eroding competitiveness and also raising inflationary pressures .
Here, in India, we have seen fiscal deficit ballooning in recent years with nearly three-fourths of government expenditure being channelled towards consumption expenditure , which has put more money into hands of people without significant improvements in productivity.
Third, trust is everything. Had Germany and France trusted Greece and other peripheral eurozone countries to cut government spending once their economies recovered from the current recessionary phase, the pressure to carry out large-scale public sector spending cuts now would have been lower. However, once you lose investors' trust due to a poor track record, immediate and drastic action is demanded and needs to be complied with.
Imagine if Greece left the eurozone. The Indian economy, like the rest of the world, would be adversely impacted via trade, investment and confidence channels. Exports would nosedive, foreign capital would fly out, depreciation pressure on the currency would rise, and domestic investor sentiment would be hurt. The economy would need both fiscal and monetary stimuli to revive.
The fiscal stimulus could entail raising government spending and/or cutting taxes, which would raise the already high fiscal deficit even further . Given India's inability to roll back government expenditure in the past, investors, both domestic and global, would react adversely if the fiscal deficit worsens, making it difficult to provide stimulus to the economy.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...-the-eurozone-crisis/articleshow/14709610.cms
India has plenty of lessons to learn from the eurozone crisis
A 2005 study carried out to analyse the costs and benefits to Britain for being a member of the European Union concluded that unless the EU agrees to adopt competitive and free markets, and makes an effective commitment not to bail out insolvent states, it made sense for Britain to leave the eurozone. Seven years later, it would seem that Greece has validated that conclusion.
A number of countries and financial institutions have admitted to making contingency plans for the extreme scenario of Greece being forced out from the eurozone. With India going through its own economic problems - a Crisil study recently revised India's GDP growth forecast for 2012-13 downwards to 6.5% from the earlier estimate of 7% - it would be pertinent to focus on key lessons from the Greek episode.
First, incentives matter. High economic growth is sustainable only if there is a competitive private sector, which raises the productive capacity of the economy. Barriers to entry and exit of labour and capital curtail business expansion by raising the cost of production .
Excessive protection to domestic industry, lack of regulatory clarity and good institutional framework, slow decision-making and poor governance do not incentivise businesses to improve efficiency. At present, in India, key input sectors such as mining, power and utilities are adversely affected due to similar problems.
Second, living beyond your means year after year can lead to bankruptcy. This is especially true if borrowed money is not used for productive purposes. Greece wrongly believed that it could continue to milk the EU for subsidies and fiscal transfers. With fiscal transfers not linked to productivity , wages raced ahead of productivity growth, thereby eroding competitiveness and also raising inflationary pressures .
Here, in India, we have seen fiscal deficit ballooning in recent years with nearly three-fourths of government expenditure being channelled towards consumption expenditure , which has put more money into hands of people without significant improvements in productivity.
Third, trust is everything. Had Germany and France trusted Greece and other peripheral eurozone countries to cut government spending once their economies recovered from the current recessionary phase, the pressure to carry out large-scale public sector spending cuts now would have been lower. However, once you lose investors' trust due to a poor track record, immediate and drastic action is demanded and needs to be complied with.
Imagine if Greece left the eurozone. The Indian economy, like the rest of the world, would be adversely impacted via trade, investment and confidence channels. Exports would nosedive, foreign capital would fly out, depreciation pressure on the currency would rise, and domestic investor sentiment would be hurt. The economy would need both fiscal and monetary stimuli to revive.
The fiscal stimulus could entail raising government spending and/or cutting taxes, which would raise the already high fiscal deficit even further . Given India's inability to roll back government expenditure in the past, investors, both domestic and global, would react adversely if the fiscal deficit worsens, making it difficult to provide stimulus to the economy.
India has plenty of lessons to learn from the eurozone crisis - The Economic Times
India has plenty of lessons to learn from the eurozone crisis
A 2005 study carried out to analyse the costs and benefits to Britain for being a member of the European Union concluded that unless the EU agrees to adopt competitive and free markets, and makes an effective commitment not to bail out insolvent states, it made sense for Britain to leave the eurozone. Seven years later, it would seem that Greece has validated that conclusion.
A number of countries and financial institutions have admitted to making contingency plans for the extreme scenario of Greece being forced out from the eurozone. With India going through its own economic problems - a Crisil study recently revised India's GDP growth forecast for 2012-13 downwards to 6.5% from the earlier estimate of 7% - it would be pertinent to focus on key lessons from the Greek episode.
First, incentives matter. High economic growth is sustainable only if there is a competitive private sector, which raises the productive capacity of the economy. Barriers to entry and exit of labour and capital curtail business expansion by raising the cost of production .
Excessive protection to domestic industry, lack of regulatory clarity and good institutional framework, slow decision-making and poor governance do not incentivise businesses to improve efficiency. At present, in India, key input sectors such as mining, power and utilities are adversely affected due to similar problems.
Second, living beyond your means year after year can lead to bankruptcy. This is especially true if borrowed money is not used for productive purposes. Greece wrongly believed that it could continue to milk the EU for subsidies and fiscal transfers. With fiscal transfers not linked to productivity , wages raced ahead of productivity growth, thereby eroding competitiveness and also raising inflationary pressures .
Here, in India, we have seen fiscal deficit ballooning in recent years with nearly three-fourths of government expenditure being channelled towards consumption expenditure , which has put more money into hands of people without significant improvements in productivity.
Third, trust is everything. Had Germany and France trusted Greece and other peripheral eurozone countries to cut government spending once their economies recovered from the current recessionary phase, the pressure to carry out large-scale public sector spending cuts now would have been lower. However, once you lose investors' trust due to a poor track record, immediate and drastic action is demanded and needs to be complied with.
Imagine if Greece left the eurozone. The Indian economy, like the rest of the world, would be adversely impacted via trade, investment and confidence channels. Exports would nosedive, foreign capital would fly out, depreciation pressure on the currency would rise, and domestic investor sentiment would be hurt. The economy would need both fiscal and monetary stimuli to revive.
The fiscal stimulus could entail raising government spending and/or cutting taxes, which would raise the already high fiscal deficit even further . Given India's inability to roll back government expenditure in the past, investors, both domestic and global, would react adversely if the fiscal deficit worsens, making it difficult to provide stimulus to the economy.
India has plenty of lessons to learn from the eurozone crisis - The Economic Times
6 Jul, 2012, 07.29PM IST, Reuters
India cash rates rise on late funding trades
India cash rates rise on late funding trades - The Economic Times
India’s FDI inflow up 30% in ‘11: Unctad
By Yogima Seth Sharma Jul 05 2012 , New Delhi
Tags: FDI, India, inflow, Economy
After a slowdown for two years in running, India's foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows
grew by 30.5 per cent in 2011, says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (Unctad) World Investment Report 2012, but it is yet to touch pre crisis levels of $43.4 billion FDI inflows in 2008, the highest received by India in a year. FDI inflow fell to $35.5 billion in 2009 and $24.2 billion in 2010.
The Unctad report released on Thursday, said FDI inflows into India went up by 30.5 per cent in 2011 to $31.6 billion vis-à-vis 24.2 billion in 2010, thus pushing up the overall inflow to South Asia by 23 per cent to $39 billion. Inflows into India, however, continue to be far less than China at $123.9 billion.
Pakistan, though the second largest FDI recipient in South Asia, saw a 35 per cent dip in inflows last year at $1.3 billion vis-à-vis $2.0 billion in the preceding year while Sri Lanka registered a decline of 40 per cent at $0.3 billion as compared to $0.5 billion in 2010.
India is opening up to FDI in a big way. While the government enhanced the FDI ceiling on single brand retail from 51 per cent to 100 per cent last year, there have been intense efforts to open up FDI into multi-brand retail to the extent of 51 per cent along with opening up of aviation. Cabinet has already given a clearance for 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail but the issue got stuck in the absence of a nationwide political consensus.
Unctad predicts that the growth rate of FDI will slow in 2012 with flows leveling at $1.6 trillion with the value of both cross-border mergers and acquisitions and greenfield investments retreating in the first five months of 2012. “Weak level of M&A announcements also suggest sluggish FDI flows in the later part of this year,” the report said.
In the medium term, global FDI inflow is expected to increase at a moderate but steady pace o reach $1.8 trillion and $1.9 trillion in 2013 and 2014.