India is celebrating its 75th year Independence after a hard colonial rule. The euphoria of celebration is shared by all the states and individuals with gusto and fervor. Karnataka’s participation in the Independence movement is well recorded in history and during the last 75 years, the state’s contribution to the nation’s overall development is exemplary.
Initially as Mysore state and after renaming as Karnataka by the late Devaraj Urs’ government, the state did not stagger on the path of development despite severe constraints. Karnataka today stands as the technology nucleus of the country and is the forerunner of our electronic revolution. India is known as a technology giant due to the progress of the state. Bengaluru as well as the state is the destination for investors and the state has created à la mode infrastructure facilities. Besides, the state contributes significantly to the revenue pool of the Union Government and has shaped many opportunities for domestic entrepreneurs.
Reorganisation of the state of Karnataka brought together differential development cultures and thus, the state developed differentially across regions. Over the last six decades, the state demonstrated vibrant potential for growth, but could not achieve the set goals.
It was during the late 1980s that the government, headed by Ramakrishna Hegde, took the initiative to prepare a long-term perspective for the state which blueprinted the potential as well as paths for development. There is a very welcome culture with the state polity that irrespective of the political leanings, intellectual inputs have always played a significant role in policy-making. These inputs have made a significant difference in the growth path. There are certain natural constraints as well as the development issues that the state confronts historically. Despite these natural resource constraints like continuous visitations of drought and climatic aberrations, the state could always maintain above-average performance in a few development indicators.
Surprisingly, in any inter-state comparison across the country, Karnataka is always placed at the median level on most of the development indicators. Continuous development efforts and best intellectual inputs brought in quite a few growth drivers for the state, but these alone could not take it to the top bracket. At the same time, the unsurmountable natural constraints could not pull down the state towards the bottom and hence, the state managed to stay at a largely median level in any comparison across the development indicators. The potential for development of the state is certainly very high and soon the state will be bracketed among the most-developed states of the country.
During the last 64 years, Karnataka has achieved enviable growth through investments in agriculture, industry, information technology, infrastructure and other sectors. Even though the development experience of the state cannot be called as smooth and stable, it has recorded marked growth. The constraints have not deterred the state from recording its performance (see graphic below).
The per capita GSDP of the state consistently grew at about 5 per cent and at 7.09 per cent during the last decade. This is quite a satisfying picture. After an initial setback during the initial years in post the 90s, the state is once again on the rapid growth track with the boom in the IT sector which is probably less sustainable as the emphasis of the IT sector is disproportionately on software development. Such unidirectional growth drivers can confront a strong challenge, if, in the near future, the software platforms in the world change significantly.
Further, it is also noticed that the high growth in the past and the present has not been inclusive at the micro as well as regional levels. We have more than 20 per cent of the population living below the poverty line and Karnataka is lagging behind as compared with other states in terms of some basic human development indicators like education, health etc. This requires immediate attention on the policy front. The regional imbalances in development across the regions of the state also pose significant challenges. Besides, the budgetary resources are often used for politically motivated schemes in the name of welfare and that contradictorily staggers the gain of welfare of the masses.
Precious little has been done to iron out the already identified regional imbalances and hence, we have two pictures of Karnataka always hanging on our development wall one with an information technology-led boom in development and another of a predominantly drought-affected rain-fed regions in the north with high density of bypassed groups vying for development initiatives.
R S Deshpande Visiting professor at ISEC
Khalil Shaha Researcher at ISEC