IAS Gyan

Daily News Analysis

DEVELOPED COUNTRY

18th August, 2022 Economy

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Context

  • In his Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Indians to embrace the “Panch Pran” — five vows — by 2047 when the country celebrates 100 years of independence. The first vow, he said, is for India to become a developed country in the next 25 years.

 

Panch Pran

The Five Resolves that PM asked people to take include;

  1. Move forward with bigger resolves and resolve of a developed India
  2. Erase all traces of servitude
  3. Be proud of India’s legacy
  4. Strength of unity
  5. Duties of citizens including PM and CMs.

Developed Country

  • A developed country (or industrialized country, high-income country, more economically developed country (MEDC), advanced country is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations. Most commonly, the criteria for evaluating the degree of economic development are gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), the per capita income, level of industrialization, amount of widespread infrastructure and general standard of living.
  • Which criteria are to be used and which countries can be classified as being developed are subjects of debate. A point of reference of US$20,000 in 2021 USD nominal GDP per capita for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a good point of departure, it is a similar level of development to the United States in 1960.
  • Developed countries have generally more advanced post-industrial economies, meaning the service sector provides more wealth than the industrial sector. They are contrasted with developing countries, which are in the process of industrialisation or are pre-industrial and almost entirely agrarian, some of which might fall into the category of Least Developed Countries.

 

DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING

  • A 'viksit rashtra' is industrialised, has a high quality of life, a developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure relative to less industrialised nations. 'Vikassheel' or developing countries are those in the process of industrialisation or are pre-industrial and almost entirely agrarian. The most common criteria for evaluating the degree of economic development are:
  • The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), or the monetary measure of all goods and services produced in a country in a year. Countries with a high GDP and per capita income (the amount of money earned per person) are considered developed.
  • The level of industrialisation. Countries in which the tertiary (companies that provide services such as entertainment, financial, and retailers) and quaternary sectors of industry (knowledge-based activities such as information technology, research, and development, as well as consulting services and education) dominate are described as developed. Developed countries generally have more advanced post-industrial economies, meaning the service sector provides more wealth than the industrial sector.
  • Other criteria are the scale of infrastructure, the general standard of living, and the Human Development Index (HDI). HDI focuses on indices for life expectancy and education and does not take into account factors such as the net wealth per capita or the relative quality of goods in a country. This is why even some of the most advanced countries, including the G7 members (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US and the European Union) and others, do not do too well on HDI. That's why countries like Switzerland rank high on HDI.

 

No standard Definition

  • There is no all-agreed definition of a developed country. More than a strict definition, a developed country differs from a developing one in categorisation used by international institutions.
  • Agencies such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization or the World Economic Forum use their indicators to club developed and developing countries.
  • For example, the UN classifies countries into low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high-income countries. This classification is based on an individual country’s gross national income per capita. A country with GNI per capita of up to $1,085 is a low-income economy, up to $4,255 in the next bracket of lower middle-income, up to $13,205 as upper middle-income and above that high-income economy.
  • The low and middle-income countries are referred to as developing countries, and the high-income economies as developed nations. Besides high per capita income, a developed country usually has a low poverty level, higher living standards, low population growth rate, low unemployment level, and rank higher on the human development index among countries of comparable size.
  • The UN also has a separate list of the least developed countries, which have low GNI per capita and fare worse on the human development index.

 

India's Present & Future

  • The World Bank currently categorises India as a lower-middle income economy — meant for countries with a gross national income per capita of between $1,086 and $4,255. High-income countries, like the US, have a per capita income of $13,205 or more.
  • India is expected to grow at over seven per cent in the current fiscal year ending in March 2023. This is the fastest among major economies. Estimates and experts say India’s economy could expand to become the world’s third-largest by 2050 after the US and China, although per capita income, currently around $2,100, may remain low compared to many countries.

 

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-the-developed-country-goal-8096306/