Excerpt

India’s economic growth has been notably impressive in the last two decades but this has not resulted in substantial reduction in poverty and the progress on other human development indicators has been slow. During this period of high economic growth which has also seen major degradation of natural resources, there has been a shift towards a rights-based and people-centred policy framework, notable interventions being the recognition of rights to information, education, forest rights, and focussed food and employment programmes. However, the country still faces numerous challenges, such as stagnant agricultural growth, rising regional and sub-regional inequality, unemployment, and inadequate access to public services for the poor. There has been a perceptible recent prioritisation aimed at reducing economic and social vulnerability of the poor and building the adaptive capacity of the poor (such as a re-invigorated shift towards improving investment in all kinds of infrastructure, focussing on creating employment-generating industries, imparting employable skills and training to a young labour force and enhancing productivity from agriculture and allied systems).