States of Inequality
Economic disparity among and within regions is on the rise. This growing divergence needs policy intervention
It is believed that a rising tide lifts all boats; unfortunately, this is not true about India. Economic development has enhanced divergence rather than fostering convergence. Inter- and intra-regional disparity has accentuated. The recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Economic Survey of India, Article IV Consultations of the International Monetary Fund and the Economic Survey, all conclude that spatial income inequality in India is not only large but increasing. The increasing income divergence amongst states is clearly reflected in the chart alongside which captures the trend of average per capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) for the top three and bottom three states and Gross Fixed Capital Formation (GFCF) from 1993-94 to 2013-14.
Further, intra-regional disparity to overall income inequality has also increased substantially. The OECD Economic Survey of India concludes that the “difference across households living in the same state” is the most important source of income inequality. Utilising district-level data, Das, Ghate and Robertson (2015) infer that intra-regional disparity in India is as important a component of spatial inequality as inter-state disparity. Their analysis suggests that inter-alia, factors like distance to the closest urban agglomeration, differences in urbanisation, electricity provisions and state-specific characteristics play a crucial role in explaining divergence across districts...Continue Reading
IMPORTANT WORDS FROM ARTICLE & THEIR MEANING
1) Fostering (को बढ़ावा) - Fost-er-ing
- Meaning - encourage the development of (something, especially something desirable) - Verb
- Synonyms - encourage, promote
- Antonyms - ignorance, neglect
- Example - A national academy could make fostering school leaders a national priority.
2) Convergence (संमिलन) - Con-ver-gen-ce
- Meaning - the process or state of converging - Noun
- Synonyms - concurrence, merging
- Example - The convergence of the two high tech devices will produce a mobile phone that will change the future of communications.
3) Disparity (असमानता) - Dis-par-eity
- Meaning - a great difference - Noun
- Synonyms - inequality, imbalance
- Antonyms - agreement, harmony
- Example - There is a huge disparity between the crime rates in the urban cities and the crime rates in the rural areas.
4) Accentuated (बल) - Excen-chew-ate-ed
- Meaning - make more noticeable or prominent - Verb
- Synonyms - underline, underscore
- Antonyms - mask, divert attention from
- Example - When Alan is drunk, he tends to accentuate his words.
5) Onerous (कष्टदायक) - On-er-ous
- Meaning - (of a task or responsibility) involving a great deal of effort, trouble, or difficulty - Adjective
- Synonyms - heavy, awkard
- Antonyms - calm, easy
- Example - The flight attendant was not prepared to deal with the onerous passenger.
6) Abysmal (काफी) - Abe-smal
- Meaning - extremely bad, appalling - Adjective
- Synonyms - endless, complete
- Antonyms - infinite, low
- Example - Jimmy cannot go to the party because of his abysmal behavior.
7) Rigorous (कठिन) - Rig-o-rus
- Meaning - extremely thorough and careful - Adjective
- Synonyms - careful, diligent
- Antonyms - careless, flexible
- Example - A body builder must go through rigorous training to build his muscles.
8) Enticing (मोहक) - In-tie-cing
- Meaning - attractive or tempting, alluring - Adjective
- Synonyms - alluring, desirable
- Antonyms - repellent, repulsive
- Example - After just recently quitting cigarettes, he found the mere sight of others smoking to be enticing.
9) Cloudburst (मूसलधार बारिश) - Cloud-ber-st
- Meaning - a sudden violent rainstorm - Noun
- Synonyms - deluge, storm
- Antonyms - small, tiny
- Example (English) - Chaos erupted during a heavy cloudburst, forcing everyone in the crowd to run for shelter.
- Example (Hindi) - मूसलाधार वर्षा के दौरान अफरा-तफरी मच गई और भीड़ में सबको आश्रय के लिए भागना पड़ा।
Now considering the article above as a Reading Comprehension question, try to answer the following -
- Is everyone concerned about the wealth gap?
- Suggest some ways to shrink the wealth gap!
Given below are some words to check your vocabulary you can make sentences with those words in the comment section which will be reviewed by us.
- Enhanced
- Divergence
- Persistent
- Stagnation
