Comparison with Other Countries:

The basic purpose of this type of comparison is that:

(i) it helps us to know the potentials of growth that can be built up in an economy, and

(ii) it helps us in a more meaningful evaluation of our performance. 

1) The growth rate in India has been among the lowest in the group of fast developing countries included here. 

2) An encouraging feature is that whereas in other countries, the growth rates tended to slow down during the 1980s and the 1990s as compared to that during the 1970s, the growth rate in India, as in neighbouring Pakistan and China, accelerated during the period. 

Thus, we reach the unhappy conclusion that the rate of growth of national income in India has been far from satisfactory. Further, it has not only been inadequate, but what is worse is that the incremental income accruing to the nation all these years has concentrated in a few hands. In consequence thereof, disparities in income have widened. Jagdish Bhagwati rightly puts it as:  "It is now clear that India's economic performance, while a definite improvement over that in the pre-independence period, is less than satisfactory when one takes the 'capitalistic' index of growth rates or the 'socialist' indices of eradication  of poverty and reduction of income inequality."