First Revised Estimates of National Income, Consumption Expenditure, Saving and Capital Formation, 2014-15

The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has released the First Revised Estimates of National Income, Consumption Expenditure, Saving and Capital Formation for the financial year 2014-15 (with Base Year 2011-12) as per the revised policy. Second Revised Estimates of the years 2011-12 to 2013-14 (with Base Year 2011-12) have also been released as per the calendar of revision of base year.

 Nominal GDP or GDP at current prices for the year 2014-15 is estimated as Rs. 124.88 lakh crore while that for the year 2013-14 is estimated as Rs. 112.73 lakh crore, exhibiting a growth of 10.8 per cent during 2014-15 as against 13.3 per cent during 2013-14.

Real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for the years 2014-15 and 2013-14 stands at Rs.105.52 lakh crore and Rs. 98.39 lakh crore, respectively, showing growth of 7.2 per cent during 2014-15, and 6.6 per cent during 2013-14.

Nominal Net National Income (NNI) at current prices for the year 2014-15 stands at Rs. 110.08 lakh crore as against Rs. 99.34 lakh crore in 2013-14, showing an increase of 10.8 per cent during 2014-15 as against an increase of 13.2 per cent in the previous year.

Gross Saving during 2014-15 is estimated as Rs. 41.17 lakh crore as against Rs. 37.25 lakh crore during 2013-14. Rate of Gross Saving to GNDI for the year 2014-15 is estimated as 32.3 per cent, the same as in 2013-14.

Per Capita Income, i.e., Per Capita Net National Income at current prices, is estimated as Rs.79,412 and Rs. 86,879 respectively for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15.  Correspondingly, Per Capita PFCE at current prices, for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 is estimated at Rs. 52,022 and Rs.56,772 respectively.

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8 Economic Barriers Responsible for India’s Gender Digital Divide

The mobile phone is one of the most widely used information and communication technologies in the developing world. For instance, in India, as of December 2013, there were more than 900 million mobile phone subscribers (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2014). However, in the male-dominated Indian society with 940 females per 1,000 males, only 30% of mobile phone owners were female, which indicates the presence of a gender digital divide in the country.

In Inequalities creating economic barriers to owning mobile phones in India Factors responsible for the gender digital divide, Devendra Potnis, assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, investigated the factors responsible for the inability of 245 female slum-dwellers in India, who earn around $2 a day, to own a mobile phone. More than 90% of the respondents experienced more than two economic barriers discussed below, which prevented them from owning some of the least expensive mobile phones worth $15 or so on installments of $1 a month.

1. Fluctuating low personal income
2. Low personal savings
3. Lack of financial support from husbands
4. Cost of owning and maintaining a mobile phone
5. Low household income
6. Majority of financial dependents in family
7. Unexpected and unforeseen family expenses
8. Inherited debt

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The Making of an Economic Superpower -- Unlocking China’s Secret of Rapid Industrialization

The rise of China is no doubt one of the most important events in world economic history since the Industrial Revolution. Mainstream economics, especially the institutional theory of economic development based on a dichotomy of extractive vs. inclusive political institutions, is highly inadequate in explaining China’s rise. This article argues that only a radical reinterpretation of the history of the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the West (as incorrectly portrayed by the institutional theory) can fully explain China’s growth miracle and why the determined rise of China is unstoppable despite its current “backward” financial system and political institutions. Conversely, China’s spectacular and rapid transformation from an impoverished agrarian society to a formidable industrial superpower sheds considerable light on the fundamental shortcomings of the institutional theory as well as mainstream “blackboard” economic models, and provides more-accurate reevaluations of historical episodes such as Africa’s enduring poverty trap despite radical political and economic reforms, Latin America’s lost decades and frequent debt crises, 19th century Europe’s great escape from the Malthusian trap, and the Industrial Revolution itself.

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